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LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  Boston 


A  START  IN  LIFE 


A  STORY    OF    THE    GENESEE   COUNTRY 


BY 

J.   T.   TROWBRIDGE 


BOSTON: 
LOTHROP,  LEE   &  SHEPARD  CO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1888, 
Br  J.  T.  TROWBRIDOI 

AU  Rights  Reserved. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Shows  that  one  need  not  go  barefoot  even 

when  one  is  without  shoes 9 

II.    A  good  hand  with  an  axe,  but  poor  at  figures,      16 

III,  A  startling  question  from  the  friendly  store 

keeper   23 

IV.  Our  hero  appears  in  his  new  rig,  and  mounted 

on  Mr.  Brooke's  best  horse 29 

V.    Why  Eli  Westlake  was  not  so  glad  as  he 

might  have  been  to  see  his  younger  brother,     38 
VI.    A  short  leave-taking  and  a  long  journey    .    .      45 
VII.    Walden  enters  the  new  settlement,  and  dis 
covers  an  old  acquaintance  eating  Johnny- 
cake  61 

VIII.    A  backwoods  lodging,  about  which  there  was 

destined  to  be  some  dispute £8 

IX.  Demonstration  by  a  schoolmaster  that  a  man 
may  sometimes  come  down  a  ladder  more 

rapidly  than  he  went  up 63 

X.    Shows  who  did,  and  who  did  not,  sleep  in  the 

loft  at  the  top  of  the  ladder 63 

XL  Mr.  A.  Randolph  Hedgewick  fails  to  see  that 
one  good  turn  at  a  grindstone  deserves 
another .  .  .  75 


0  CONTENTS. 

XII.  Mr.  Brooke  settles  one  dispute,  and  Mr.  Gad- 
bury  is  chosen  umpire  in  another  that  it 
led  to 81 

XIII.  The  grinders  of  the  two  axes  have  a  rare 

opportunity  to  try  their  edge 87 

XIV.  Mr.  Gadbury's  novel  method  of  raising  pota 

toes,  and  how  it  succeeded 97 

XV.  A  coon-hunt  with  a  dog  that  was  not  a  coon- 
dog  105 

XVI.    A  true  family  history  of  a  kitten,  a  puppy, 

and  a  young  raccoon 116 

XVII.     Mr.  Hedgewick  thinks  it  time  for  him  to  quit, 
and  is  surprised  to  find  his  employer  of  the 

same  opinion       122 

XVHI.    A  bee-hunt,   which  shows  that  they  don't 
always  get  the  most  honey  who  receive  the 

most  stings 129 

XIX.    A  burglary,  which  looked  also  like  a  revenge,     140 
XX.     In  which  Gadbury's  old  Revolutionary  mus 
ket  plays  an  interesting  part 146 

XXI.    End  of  the  tragical  episode  of  the  burglar, 

and  also  of  this  history 159 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

"  He  had  nothing  on  his  feet  but  some  old  rags  loosely 

tied  with  strings" 9 

"  Eli  stood  by  the  steers,  looking  up  with  a  scowl  at 

the  boy  on  the  horse  " 43 

In  the  new  settlement 54 

How  Walden  ground  his  axe 84 

Chopping  for  a  wager 99 

A  successful  coon-hunt HT 

Carrying  home  the  honey 140 

"Shaggy,  savage,  dying,  but  still  turning  to  strike  and 

snarl"  .             16° 


A  START  IN  LIFE 


CHAPTER  I. 

SHOWS    THAT  ONE  NEED   NOT  GO  BABEFOOT  EVEN  WHEN 
ONE  IS  WITHOUT  SHOES. 

WHEN  the  region  lying  west  of  the  Mohawk 
River  was  mostly  a  wilderness,  and  the  oldest  of 
the  towns  which  now  star  its  banks  were  little 
more  than  frontier  villages,  in  the  streets  of 
one  of  them,  bearing  then,  as  now,  the  impe 
rial  name  of  Rome,  there  appeared,  at  the  close 
of  a  gloomy  afternoon,  a  limping,  overgrown 
boy. 

He  was  about  seventeen  years  old,  and  per 
haps  not  large  for  his  age ;  it  might  have  been 
the  gauntness  of  his  frame  and  the  shortness 
of  his  rent  coat-sleeves  and  tattered  trousers 
which  gave  him  his  overgrown  appearance. 
He  did  not  limp  because  he  was  lame,  but  he 
had  nothing  on  his  feet  but  some  old  rags 
9 


10  A  START   IN  LIFE 

loosely  tied  with  strings ;  they  were  continu 
ally  getting  awry,  and  he  had  to  pick  his  way 
over  sharp  clods. 

It  was  late  in  November;  and  what  is  now  a 
handsome  street,  well  paved,  with  level  side 
walks,  fine  residences  and  showy  shops,  was 
then  a  rough  wagon-road  cut  up  into  gullies 
and  ruts ;  the  puddles  had  become  ice,  and  the 
wrinkles  and  ridges  of  frozen  mud  were  cruel 
to  unprotected  feet. 

The  wayfarer  stopped  occasionally  to  adjust 
his  bandages  and  tighten  the  strings  at  his 
ankles,  and  at  last  turned  up  at  a  store,  the 
front  of  which  bore  the  sign, 


BROOKE  BROTHERS  &  Co. 


As  he  entered,  he  took  from  his  jacket  pocket 
a  crumpled  paper,  which  he  handed  to  a  man 
who  came  forward,  and  then  watched  with 
painful  solicitude  while  he  unfolded  the  scrap 
and  pursed  his  brows  together  over  it,  as  if 
either  it  were  hard  to  read,  or  its  contents 
were  unsatisfactory. 


ONE  NEED   NOT   GO  BAREFOOT  11 

"Did  Thomas  Tadmore  give  you  this?"  the 
storekeeper  inquired. 

"Yes,  sir,"  faltered  the  short-sleeved,  bare- 
ankled  boy. 

"  You  are  Walden  Westlake  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir.  I  have  worke^.  for  him  all 
summer.  He  has  never  paid  me  anything.  I 
have  got  through  now ;  and  when  I  asked  for 
my  money  he  gave  me  this." 

"It's  an  order  for  clothes  and  shoes,  to  the 
amount  of  twenty  dollars,"  the  storekeeper 
said  to  another  man  who  now  came  forward. 
"  We  don't  owe  Thomas  Tadmore  twenty  dol 
lars,  do  we  ?  " 

"  We  don't  owe  anybody  by  that  name  any 
thing  ;  not  a  dollar,"  said  the  second  man,  who 
was  considerably  older  than  the  first,  reaching 
for  the  paper.  "This  looks  like  one  of  Tad- 
more's  tricks." 

The  gaunt  youth  seemed  to  grow  gaunter 
than  ever  at  these  words,  and  his  anxious  face 
took  on  an  expression  of  despair. 

"You  have  had  dealings  with  him,  haven't 
you?"  he  said. 


12  A    START  IN  LIFE 

"Dealings  enough,"  said  the  older  man. 
"But  the  indebtedness  has  always  been  the 
other  way;  it's  like  getting  grease  out  of  a 
grindstone  to  collect  money  of  Tom  Tad- 


more." 


"But  he  has  corn  and  potatoes  and  wool, 
which  he  says  he  is  going  to  sell  you,"  the  boy 
insisted.  "  Can't  you  trust  him  for  at  least  a 
part  of  this  order  ?  I  have  worn  out  my 
clothes  working  for  him  ;  my  shoes  have  fairly 
dropped  off  my  feet.  Now  winter  is  coming, 
and  I  don't  know  what  I  am  to  do." 

"I'm  sorry  for  you,  my  boy,"  said  the  older 
man.  "  But  we  can't  trust  Tadmore.  Haven't 
you  found  him  out  ?  " 

"  He  hasn't  kept  his  word  with  me,"  was  the 
miserable  reply.  "  But  I  didn't  think  he  would 
turn  me  off  so,  without  anything." 

"It's  a  hard  time  to  get  work,"  said  the 
younger  man,  handing  back  the  order.  "You'd 
better  go  home  to  your  folks  if  you  have  any. 
Where  do  you  live?" 

Having  put  the  worthless  paper  back  into 
his  pocket,  Walden  Westlake  remained  silent 


ONE  NEED  NOT  GO  BAREFOOT  13 

for  a  moment,  then  answered  with  a  swelling 
heart,  — 

"  My  folks  live  in  Whitestown.  But  I  can't 
go  back  to  them."  When  pressed  for  the 
reason,  he  went  on,  his  tongue  growing  elo 
quent  when  once  loosed. 

"  My  father  died  a  year  and  a  half  ago ;  I 
am  one  of  the  younger  children.  Our  oldest 
brother,  Eli,  is  head  now ;  a  good  man  enough, 
but  he's  a  perfect  tyrant,  and  he  treats  us  out 
rageously.  I  stood  it  as  long  as  I  could,  then  I 
told  my  mother  I  wouldn't  be  a  slave  to  my 
own  brother  any  longer;  I  was  going  to  try 
my  luck  away  from  home.  She  couldn't  do 
anything  for  me ;  he  has  his  way  in  spite  of 
her ;  and,  seeing  just  how  it  was,  she  said  she 
didn't  know  but  I'd  better  go." 

"Didn't  your  brother  feed  and  clothe  you 
decently?" 

"Yes,  the  food  and  clothes  were  well 
enough." 

"  Did  he  overwork  you  ?  " 

"  We  had  enough  to  do.  But  that  I  didn't 
care  for.  I'm  not  afraid  of  work,  and  I  should 


14  A  START   IN  LITE 

have  been  contented  to  stay  with  him  if  he  had 
been  kind.  He  used  to  be.  But  almost  the 
very  day  he  took  our  father's  place,  and  had 
authority  over  us,  he  changed.  He  made  new 
rules ;  and,  I  tell  you,  we  got  hard  words  and 
something  worse  if  we  stepped  over  one  of  'em. 
So  I  left  last  May,  and  came  over  here  and 
hired  out  to  Mr.  Tadmore." 

"Walked  from  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire, 
eh  ?  "  said  the  younger  storekeeper,  eying  the 
boy  with  a  sort  of  humorous  commiseration. 

"In  one  sense  I  did,"  replied  Walden,  his 
face  kindling  with  intelligence  and  honest 
pride,  which  made  those  who  heard  him  forget 
his  split  trousers-legs  and  bandaged  feet.  "  He 
worked  me  half  to  death,  and  then  half-starved 
me.  But  he  never  dared  to  strike  me  a  blow. 
And  we  can  take  from  a  stranger  what  we  can't 
take  from  our  own  kin." 

"  Well,"  said  the  man,  kindly,  "  go  and  sit 
down  by  the  fire,  and  toast  your  shins  and 
think  it  over.  It's  a  hard  case,  but  I  guess 
you'd  better  make  up  your  mind  to  go  home." 

*'  I  didn't  run  away ;  don't  think  that,"  said 


ONE  NEED   NOT   GO  BAREFOOT  15 

Walden,  looking  back,  as  he  started  for  the 
fireplace.  "  I  walked  away.  I  told  my  brother 
I  would  if  he  struck  me  another  blow.  '  In 
that  case,'  says  he,  'I'll  give  you  a  flogging 
that  will  last  you ; '  and  he  did  give  me  a 
stinger !  Then  I  came  off  with  not  much  else 
but  the  clothes  I  had  on,  and  they  were  too 
small  even  then." 

"  Don't  you  want  to  see  your  mother  ?  " 
"Don't  I  want  to  see  —  my" — But,  instead 
of    finishing  the   sentence,  Walden  Westlake 
gave  way  to  unmanly  tears. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  GOOD  HAND  WITH  AN  AXE,  BUT  POOB  AT  FIGURES. 

HE  went  and  sat  down  by  the  open  fire,  and, 
pulling  off  the  wrappings  of  rags,  looked  rue 
fully  at  his  bare  bruised  feet.  He  tried  to  dig 
a  sliver  out  of  one  of  them  with  the  point  of 
a  dull  knife,  by  the  light  of  the  blazing  logs, 
which  one  of  the  men  came  and  poked  for  his 
benefit. 

I  wish  I  could  picture  him  there,  so  lank  and 
ungainly,  so  wretched  and  so  ragged,  his  foot 
drawn  up  and  his  body  crooked  over  it,  the 
wincing  face  very  near  the  callous  sole  and 
probing  blade,  in  the  red  fire-gleam.  In  that 
strained  position  his  sleeves  slipped  farther 
than  ever  up  toward  the  sharp  elbows,  and 
the  receding  trousers-legs  seemed  to  be  taking 
final  leave  of  the  lean  projecting  shanks.  But 

one  could  see  that  his  features,  if  not  hand- 
16 


&  GOOD   HAND   WITH   AN  AXE  17 

some,  had  a  rude  strength,  and  that  here  was 
the  rough  material  of  a  man. 

Perhaps  the  younger  storekeeper  saw  it,  for  in 
a  little  while  he  came  and  stood  with  his  back 
to  the  fire,  and  his  hands  spread  out  towards  it, 
parting  his  coat-tails,  and  looked  down  with 
genial  curiosity  at  the  bent,  barefooted  boy. 

"Rather  hard  travelling,  isn't  it?"  he  said, 
with  a  smile. 

"  It  is  for  me  !  "  Walden  lowered  his  heel 
to  the  warm  hearth,  straightened  the  curve  in 
his  back,  and,  snapping  the  blade,  returned  the 
knife  to  his  pocket.  "  I  never  went  barefoot 
before  in  cold  weather." 

"  What  sort  of  work  have  you  been  used  to  ?  " 

"  Almost  every  sort  of  farm-work  ;  planting, 
hoeing,  driving  oxen,  milking  cows,  sugar-mak 
ing  ;  I  can't  tell  what." 

"  A  good  hand  with  an  axe  ?  " 

The  boy  looked  up  with  a  smile.  "I  can 
make  cord-wood  of  a  tree  about  as  quick  as 
any  fellow  of  my  age,"  he  said,  with  modest 
confidence. 

"  Ever  been  much  to  school  ?  " 


18  A   START  IN   LIFE 

"  I've  generally  had  about  three  months' 
schooling  in  winter,  till  last  winter." 

"  Your  tyrant  of  a  brother  kept  you  out  ?  " 

"No,"  said  Walden,  frankly,  eager  to  do 
justice  even  to  the  author  of  his  woes.  "It 
wasn't  his  fault.  He  was  willing  I  should  go 
when  work  wasn't  driving.  But  we  had  a 
master  who  was  as  much  of  a  tyrant  in  school 
as  my  brother  was  at  home.  One  day  he  un 
dertook  to  whale  one  of  the  little  fellows  for 
some  trifling  thing,  when  four  or  five  big  ones 
pitched  in  and  turned  him  out.  He  couldn't 
keep  our  school  after  that;  so  I  lost  a  good 
half  of  the  term." 

"  That  was  a  foolish  thing  for  the  big  boys  to 
do,"  observed  the  storekeeper. 

'*  I  suppose  it  was,"  the  boy  by  the  fire  an 
swered,  with  a  laugh ;  "  though  I  was  never  so 
tickled  at  anything  in  my  life." 

"  From  a  love  of  malicious  fun  ?  "  queried  the 
storekeeper,  with  a  look  of  disapproval. 

"  Partly  from  a  love  of  fun,  maybe,  but  not 
malicious  fun."  Walden  grew  serious  as  he 
added,  "  I  think  it  was  more  from  a  love  of  jus- 


A  GOOD   HAND   WITH  AN   AXE  19 

tice.  It  was  a  satisfaction  to  see  the  master 
paid  off  for  his  cruelty  to  others." 

All  this  time  he  was  unconsciously  giving 
glimpses  of  his  own  character  to  the  shrewd 
and  kindly  storekeeper. 

"Are  you  good  at  figures?"  was  the  next 
question. 

"  Not  so  good  as  I  ought  to  be,  considering 
the  amount  of  schooling  I  have  had,"  he  can 
didly  admitted. 

"  Whose  fault  is  that  ?  " 

"  Partly  my  own,  I  suppose ;  for  if  a  scholar 
is  in  earnest  he  can  learn,  even  with  poor 
teachers." 

The  storekeeper  questioned  him  still  further 
as  to  his  proficiency  in  arithmetic;  then  re 
marking,  with  a  regretful  shake  of  his  head, 
"  It's  a  pity  you  did  not  do  more  in  figures ; 
there's  nothing  so  useful  in  business,"  walked 
off  to  serve  a  customer. 

Walden  followed  him  with  a  quick  glance, 
thinking,  "  If  he  had  found  I  was  first-rate  at 
accounts,  maybe  he  would  have  given  me  a 
place  in  his  store."  But  immediately  his  good- 


20  A   START   IN   LIFE 

sense  showed  him  the  absurdity  of  such  a  thing. 
Glancing  down  at  his  lank,  ill-clad  limbs,  he 
said  to  himself,  "  I'm  no  more  fit  for  a  clerk 
than  a  scrawny  colt  is  for  a  war-horse  ! " 

Then  he  sat  warming  himself,  and  contem 
plating  his  gloomy  prospects,  while  the  bleak 
November  evening  closed  in.  Without  money, 
or  work,  or  clothes,  what  was  he  to  do  ? 

It  was  the  darkest  hour  in  Walden  West- 
lake's  life ;  darker  by  far  than  the  time  when 
he  left  his  comfortable  home  and  went  out  to 
seek  employment  in  a  world  which  he  knew 
well  enough  he  would  find  rough.  That  was  in 
the  joyous  days  of  spring;  now  winter  had 
fairly  begun.  Then  hope  of  success  beckoned 
him  on  ;  now  disheartening  failure  was  his  lot. 

An  inexpressible  yearning  possessed  him  to 
go  back  to  his  mother  and  his  forsaken  home. 
He  longed  to  lay  his  face  in  his  mother's  lap,  as 
he  used  to  do  when  a  child,  tell  her  his  griefs, 
feel  her  comforting  hand  upon  his  head,  and 
hear  her  soothing  voice,  — 

"There,  there,  my  son  !  don't  cry !  it  will  all 
turn  out  right,  I  am  sure,  if  you  try  to  do  right." 


A  GOOD   HAND   WITH  AN    AXE  21 

He  knew  that  was  just  what  she  would  say, 
and  he  endeavored  to  draw  consolation  and 
strength  from  such  imagined  sympathy  and 
advice. 

"If  he  had  tried  to  do  right!"  But  had 
he  not  tried?  He  had  worked  faithfully  for 
Thomas  Tad  more,  and  waited  patiently  for  his 
pay,  and  now  it  appeared  that  he  was  never  to 
get  a  cent  of  it.  He  could  hardly  repress  his 
angry  sobs  as  he  thought  of  his  bitter  wrongs. 

Was  it  his  duty  to  return  and  humble  him 
self  to  the  brother  who  had  given  him  that  last 
undeserved  flogging,  in  addition  to  the  other 
hard  blows  and  hard  words  which  he  had  found 
too  much  to  bear  ?  He  might  have  done  even 
that,  but  for  one  thing. 

"If  it  was  May  again,  with  the  summer 
before  us,  and  plenty  of  work,  he  would  be 
glad  to  see  me,  and  I  shouldn't  be  so  much 
ashamed.  But  I  know  what  he  would  say 
now.  '  Been  idling  all  the  season,  have  you  ? 
and  now  cold  weather,  an  empty  stomach,  and 
bare  bones  send  you  back  to  them  that  can  feed 
and  clothe  you ;  just  as  I  expected  !  A  pretty 


22  A   START  IN  LIFE 

prodigal  you  are  ! '  He  shaVt  say  that,"  the 
homeless  one  muttered  to  himself,  after  a  mo 
ment's  reflection ;  "  he  never  shall  say  that  to 
me!" 


CHAPTER  III. 

A    STARTLING    QUESTION    FROM    THE    FBIENDLY    STORE 
KEEPER. 

AGAIN  the  younger  man  came  and  warmed 
his  back  at  the  fire,  with  his  palms  outspread 
behind  him  against  the  blaze. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  as  if  reading  the  boy's  mis 
erable  thoughts,  "  what  have  you  concluded  to 
do?" 

Walden  was  tying  the  rags  on  his  feet  again, 
in  preparation  for  another  dreary  tramp  over 
the  frozen  ground.  He  could  not  find  voice  to 
speak  for  a  moment,  and  he  went  on  adjusting 
the  wrappings  without  looking  up. 

"I  guess  you'll  go  back  to  your  brother, 
won't  you  ?  " 

"  To  get  more  insults  and  very  likely  more 
blows ! "  Walden  replied,  lifting  his  eyes  with 
a  look  of  resolute  despair.  "  No,  sir ;  that's  the 
last  thing  I  shall  do." 

23 


24  A  START  IN  LIFE 

"Well,  then,  what's  the  first  thing?" 

"  The  first  thing  seems  to  be  the  only  thing  I 
can  do  to-night.  I  shall  go  back  to  Mr.  Tad- 
more.  I'll  tell  him  what  you  say  about  the 
order,  and  demand  my  money." 

"  I'm  afraid  you  won't  get  it,"  said  the  man. 

"  I  don't  expect  to.  But  if  he  won't  pay  me, 
he  must  keep  me.  He  can't  turn  me  outdoors 
in  this  condition,  in  this  weather ;  I  shall  have 
something  to  say  about  that !  "  Walden  added, 
with  a  surly  smile. 

He  got  up  and  was  shuffling  off  with  his 
bandaged  feet,  when  the  man  called  after 
him:  — 

"  See  here,  boy !  let  me  look  at  that,  order 
again."  Walden's  heart  gave  a  leap  as  he  re 
produced  the  crumpled  paper.  "  I've  spoken 
to  my  brother,  and  he  thinks  he  can  get  a  little 
of  it  out  of  Tadmore,  one  way  or  another ;  any 
how,  we'll  take  the  risk.  I  think  I  could 
manage  him,  if  I  was  to  stay  here;  but  I'm 
going  out  to  our  new  settlement  in  a  day  or 
two." 

Thereupon  the  older  man  called  out,  "  Don't 


A  STARTLING  QUESTION  25 

let  Tadmore  know,  if  we  advance  anything  on 
that  order ;  he  never  will  bring  us  any  of  his 
stuff  if  you  do." 

"  Then  I  mustn't  go  back  there  to-night," 
said  Walden.  "  For  if  he  asks  me  I  can't  lie 
to  him." 

"We'll  manage  somehow  to  get  around 
that,"  said  the  younger  man,  to  the  boy's  great 
content. 

Ready-made  articles  of  clothing  were  in 
those  days  few,  and  generally  of  coarse  qual 
ity.  The  store  of  the  enterprising  Brooke 
Brothers  was  probably  the  only  place  in  all 
that  region  where  anything  of  the  kind  was* 
to  be  had. 

A  thick  red  flannel  shirt,  to  take  the  place  of 
the  worn-out  cotton  one  which  the  boy  wore, 
was  the  first  thing  selected.  The  next  was  a 
cloth  cap.  Then  he  chose  a  pair  of  blue-yarn 
socks  for  his  bare  feet,  and  a  pair  of  cowhide 
boots,  which  he  thought  extravagant,  having 
aspired  to  nothing  higher  than  shoes.  But 
there  were  no  shoes  of  his  size  in  the  store,  and 
the  younger  Mr.  Brooke  strongly  advised  boots, 


26  A    START  IN   LIFE 

in  view  of  the  deep  snows  those  old-fashioned 
winters  were  sure  to  bring. 

Jacket  and  trousers  to  fit  were  a  more  diffi 
cult  matter.  Those  best  adapted  to  his  inches 
had  the  sleeves  and  legs  as  much  too  long  as 
those  he  wore  were  too  short.  But  the  younger 
Mr.  Brooke  said  that  was  a  good  fault. 

"  You'll  be  growing,"  he  said  ;  "  and  in  the 
meantime  you  can  wear  your  trousers  and  cuffs 
turned  up." 

As  the  clothes  were  of  a  stout  gray  home 
spun,  Walden  was  well  pleased.  He  put  them 
on  in  the  corner  of  the  store,  and  came  forward 
and  showed  himself  proudly  in  the  fire-light. 
The  elder  Mr.  Brooke  held  a  candle  to  him 
while  the  younger  stooped  to  adjust  the  rolled- 
up  part  of  the  legs,  remarking :  — 

"  I  suppose  you  can  have  'em  cut  off,  or 
tucks  taken  in  'em,  if  you  think  best.  The 
sleeves  look  very  well." 

"  I  rather  think  he'd  better  have  the  trousers 
cut  off,"  said  the  elder  Mr.  Brooke.  "Wife 
will  do  it  in  a  few  minutes,  this  evening. 
How's  the  shirt?" 


A  STARTLING  QUESTION  27 

"ihist  the  thing!"  said  the  enthusiastic 
wearer. 

"Well,  you'll  want  that  and  the  socks 
washed  once  in  a  while ;  so  you'd  better  take 
an  extra  pair  of  each,"  said  the  younger  store 
keeper,  with  a  generosity  that  brought  tears  to 
the  boy's  eyes.  "  If  we  can't  get  our  pay  out 
of  Tadmore,  we'll  charge  'em  to  you.  Is  that 
right?" 

"  Right  —  certainly  —  if  I  am  ever  able  to 
pay  for  them,"  said  Walden. 

"  There  isn't  much  doubt  about  that  if  you're 
the  kind  of  a  boy  I  take  you  for.  Now  I  want 
to  ask  you  another  question." 

Walden 's  eyes  had  wandered  down  admiring 
ly  at  his  new  trousers,  and  the  stout  boots 
that  had  replaced  the  wrappings  of  his  feet. 
But  he  looked  up  quickly  into  the  man's  genial 
face. 

"  I'm  going  out  with  a  load  of  goods  to  our 
new  settlement  in  the  Genesee  country,  where 
we're  setting  up  a  store  and  a  sawmill.  About 
day  after  to-morrow,  if  the  weather  continues 
favorable;  I've  been  waiting  for  the  mud  to 


28  A  START  IN  LIFE 

dry  up,  or  freeze  up,  so  I  can  haul  through. 
There'll  be  plenty  to  do  out  there  for  a  young 
fellow  who  can  swing  an  axe,  and  is  minded  to 
make  himself  useful.  How  would  you  like  to 
go  with  me?" 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OUR  HEBO  APPEARS  IN  HIS  NEW  BIG,  AND  MOUNTED  ON 
MB.  BBOOKE'S  BEST  HOBSE. 

IN  his  comfortable  clothes  and  new  boots, 
Walden  Westlake  was  beginning  to  take  more 
hopeful  views  of  things.  But  he  was  not  pre 
pared  for  this  joyful  surprise.  If  the  dismal 
November  evening  had  changed  just  then  to  a 
fine  morning  in  spring,  the  world  could  not 
have  looked  brighter  to  him  all  at  once  than 
when  he  heard  the  storekeeper's  astonishing 
proposal. 

"  Do  you  mean  I  am  to  go  out  to  the  new 
settlement  to  stay  ?  "  he  asked,  wonderingly. 

44  Why  not  ?  "  said  Mr.  Brooke.  "  It's  a  fine 
country ;  just  as  good  as  this.  In  a  few  years 
there'll  be  as  handsome  farms  there  as  any 
hereabouts.  People  laugh  at  me,  and  say 
there'll  be  no  inhabitants  to  speak  of  but  bears 
and  panthers,  in  the  Genesee  region,  for  the 
29 


30  A   START  IN   LIFE 

next  hundred  years.  I  tell  'em  the  wilderness 
will  be  a  garden  of  civilization  in  half  that 
time. 

"A  young  man  with  the  right  stuff  in  him, 
going  out  there  now,  will  have  chances  to  take 
up  land  of  his  own,  or  start  some  thriving 
business,  and  grow  up  with  the  country." 

Walden  kindled  with  something  of  his  new 
friend's  enthusiasm,  and  laughed  with  repressed 
glee  at  the  prospect  held  out  to  him. 

"  You  can  stop  here  with  us  till  we  are  ready 
to  start,"  Mr.  Brooke  continued,  "and  help  a 
little,  to  pay  your  way.  It's  a  long  journey, 
and  you'll  probably  have  a  chance  to  turn 
down  your  trousers  before  ever  you  come 
back." 

"  I  should  hope  so,"  said  Walden,  "  if  I  am 
to  grow  up  with  the  country ! " 

Eager  as  he  was  to  accept  a  proposal  which 
seemed  to  him  so  full  of  promise,  he  found 
there  was  a  serious  side  to  it  when  he  came  to 
think  it  over  that  night. 

Having  eaten  a  bountiful  supper  of  baked 
potatoes  and  broiled  bacon  with  the  Brooke 


OUR  HERO   IN  HIS  NEW   RIG  31 

family,  washed  his  feet  and  greased  his  boots 
before  the  kitchen  fire,  and  gone  to  bed,  leav 
ing  his  trousers  to  be  shortened  by  the  house 
wife's  shears,  he  lay  for  a  long  while  thinking 
excitedly  of  the  adventure  before  him,  and  of 
the  home  he  was  perhaps  leaving  forever 
behind.  Once  more  the  longing  to  see  his 
mother  came  over  him,  and  with  his  improved 
prospects  he  did  not  dread  so  much  a  meeting 
with  his  oldest  brother. 

"  I'm  independent  now,  and  he  can't  say  I 
go  back  for  anything  I  want  of  him,"  he  said 
to  himself,  with  a  grateful  heart. 

The  next  morning,  his  face  seemed  to  show 
what  had  been  passing  in  his  mind,  for  when 
he  asked  what  work  he  should  go  about  the 
younger  Mr.  Brooke  looked  at  him  pleasantly, 
and  said,  — 

"I  shall  let  you  do  what  you  like  to-day; 
and  I  rather  think  I  can  guess  what  that  will 
be.  How  long  since  you've  seen  any  of  your 
folks?*' 

"Not  since  I  left  home  in  May,"  replied 
Walden,  with  glistening  eyes. 


32  A   START   IN  LIFE 

"I  thought  so.  And  there's  no  knowing 
when  you  will  have  another  chance  to  visit 
them.  Now,  if  you  would  like  to  go  over  to 
Whitestown  and  bid  'em  good-by,  I've  a  horse 
you  can  ride,  —  unless,"  the  storekeeper  added, 
with  a  humorous  twinkle,  "you  prefer  to  try 
your  new  boots  on  the  road." 

Something  between  a  sob  and  a  laugh  broke 
into  the  boy's  speech  when  he  attempted  to 
reply.  He  glanced  down  at  his  improved  trou 
sers  and  well  oiled  boots,  then  looked  up  at  Mr. 
Brooke,  winked  hard,  and  dashed  away  a  tear 
or  two,  as  he  faltered,  — 

"  I  should  like  to  ride.  I  didn't  expect  any 
such  luck  as  that !  though  I  did  wish  I  could 
go  over  and  say  good-by  to  the  folks." 

Accordingly,  not  long  after  breakfast  the 
horse  was  saddled,  and,  mounting  at  the  front 
steps,  Walden  received  his  employer's  parting 
advice. 

"If  you  have  any  clothing  at  home  you 
haven't  outgrown,  you'd  better  get  it.  I  don't 
think  you'll  have  trouble  with  your  brother 
when  you  tell  him  of  your  engagement  with 


OUR   HERO  IN   HIS   NEW  RIG  33 

me.  If  he's  inclined  to  be  brotherly,  you'll 
meet  him  more  than  half  way,  of  course.  If 
he  is  harsh  with  you,  treat  him  respectfully, 
but  don't  answer  back.  If  it  so  happens  that 
he  tries  to  detain  you,  I'll  see  about  it." 

"  Oh,  he  won't  try  that ;  he  knows  me  too 
well !  "  replied  Walden.  "  I  think  he'll  be  all 
right  when  he  sees  me  in  this  rig." 

Mr.  Brooke  laughed.  It  was  certainly  a 
very  different  "  rig "  from  that  in  which  the 
boy  had  made  his  appearance  the  night  before. 
In  his  new  suit,  with  boots  in  stirrups,  sitting 
erect  in  the  saddle,  he  could  not  help  showing 
something  of  the  pride  and  happiness  which 
filled  his  heart ;  and  his  employer  was  not  ill 
pleased. 

"  I've  got  a  prize  in  that  boy,"  he  said  to  his 
brother,  as  they  stood  in  the  door  and  saw  him 
ride  off  at  a  brisk  trot. 

Walden  made  the  journey  in  high  spirits, 
often  contrasting  his  present  content  with  the 
sense  of  wrong  which  embittered  him  when 
last  he  travelled  that  road.  It  was  May-time 
then,  but  his  sky  was  full  of  wrath  and  gloom. 


34  A   START   IN   LIFE 

It  was  not  so  much  hope  that  had  sustained 
him  in  the  rash  step  he  was  taking,  as  a  fierce 
determination  to  free  himself  from  his  thral 
dom,  and  win  a  success  which  should  some  day 
burn  his  unjust  brother's  heart. 

He  remembered  how  ardently  he  had  longed 
for  that  triumph;  how  sweet  had  been  the 
thought  of  that  innocent  revenge. 

"  He  shall  be  sorry  for  his  treatment  of  me  ; 
he  shall  find  that  even  a  younger  brother  is 
entitled  to  some  respect !  "  he  had  muttered 
angrily  to  himself,  again  and  again,  as  he 
passed  those  fields  and  farmhouses  by  which 
he  was  returning  in  so  changed  a  mood. 

Some  of  the  scenes  recalled  vividly  his  feel 
ings  at  that  time.  There  was  a  wayside  trough 
by  which  he  had  sat  down  to  rest,  the  sight  of 
which  brought  up  wonderful  confused  visions 
of  himself,  here  a  rebel  and  an  outcast,  driven 
forth  by  a  brutal  elder  brother,  and  there  a 
radiant  youth  returning  to  confront  an  elder 
brother  humbled  and  repentant. 

Such  was  the  dream  he  had  nourished  at 
that  spot.  It  had  faded  now.  Not  that  he 


OUR   HERO   IN   HIS  NEW   RIG  35 

had  forgotten  his  wrongs ;  but  he  felt  that  he 
could  almost  forgive  the  author  of  them  if 
he  should  come  forward  to  meet  him  with 
kind  words. 

As  he  approached  the  neighborhood  where 
he  was  known,  and  became  conscious  of  eyes 
gazing  at  him  from  the  farmhouses  he  passed, 
Walden  felt  no  little  satisfaction  at  being  seen 
in  decent  clothes,  mounted  on  a  good  horse. 
He  was  anxious  to  give  old  acquaintances  an 
impression  that  he  had  got  on  very  well  away 
from  home ;  perhaps  forgetting  what  very 
different  notions  they  would  have  formed  if 
they  had  seen  him  limping  up  to  Brooke 
Brothers'  steps  the  night  before. 

He  stopped  to  speak  to  persons  whom  he 
knew,  and,  in  reply  to  their  questions,  said, 
with  an  air  of  some  importance,  that  he  was 
making  a  mere  flying  visit,  that  he  had  got  a 
good  chance  and  was  "going  West." 

That  phrase  meant  something  in  those  days 
altogether  unlike  what  it  means  now.  It  was 
only  to  push  on  a  hundred  miles  or  so  into  the 
wilderness  of  western  New  York.  But  that 


36  A   START   IN   LIFE 

was   about  as   formidable   an   undertaking   as 
anything  the  words  imply  to-day. 

At  last,  on  the  brow  of  a  gentle  declivity, 
Walden  came  in  sight  of  his  old  home.  There 
was  the  low  brown  gable,  and  the  great  chim 
ney  built  outside  the  house,  and  the  tall  well- 
sweep  on  the  edge  of  the  little  peach-orchard 
in  the  rear.  Through  the  pleasant  valley 
beyond,  the  Mohawk  River  wound,  a  curve  of 
shining  silver  in  the  morning  sun. 

A  gust  of  tears  swelled  the  boy's  heart  and 
rained  quick  drops  from  his  eyes  at  sight  of 
these  well  remembered  scenes.  How  often,  in 
the  thirst  and  weariness  and  homesickness  of 
the  season  that  was  past,  he  had  thought  of 
that  pleasant  peach-orchard  and  its  delicious 
fruit,  and  of  the  cool  bucket  rising  at  the  end 
of  the  long  well-pole,  to  poise  plashing  on  the 
curb  ! 

There  was  the  lane  where  he  had  so  often 
ridden  the  colts  and  driven  the  cows  to  water 
down  to  the  river's  brink,  singing  as  he  went 
and  came ;  and  there  the  upland,  with  its  fields 
and  groves,  where  he  had  wandered  many  a 


OUR   HERO  IN  HIS  NEW   RIG  37 

summer's  afternoon,  his  boyish  soul  filled  with 
the  mystery  and  beauty  of  the  world,  and 
dreams  of  a  golden  future. 

It  was  a  hopeful,  not  unhappy  childhood  he 
had  known  there  ;  and  over  him,  as  he  gazed, 
swept  a  great  wave  of  yearning  and  regret.  He 
was  for  a  few  minutes  almost  sick  of  his  engage 
ment  with  Mr.  Brooke.  But  then  the  great 
grievance  he  had  suffered  at  his  brother's  hands 
rose  up  before  him;  and  his  hope  of  "growing 
up  "  with  the  new  country  came  back  fresh  and 
strong. 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHY  ELI  WESTLAKE  WAS    NOT    SO    GLAD    AS    HE    MIGHT 
HAVE  BEEN  TO  SEE   HIS  YOUNGER  BBOTHEB. 

HE  had  recovered  his  fortitude  just  in  time. 
Out  of  the  barnyard  lane  before  him  came  a 
yoke  of  steers,  pushing  and  clashing  their 
horns.  They  turned  into  the  road,  guided 
by  a  sturdy  young  man  wielding  a  short  hick 
ory  gad.  A  heavy  log-chain  trailed  from  the 
jingling  ring  of  the  yoke ;  the  near  ox  was 
stepping  over  and  on  it  as  they  turned,  and 
the  driver  was  reaching  across  to  beat  the 
crowding  off  ox  over  the  forehead,  when  he 
looked  up  and  saw  the  horseback  boy  in  the 
road. 

"  Whoa !  back  ! "  he  suddenly  called,  plying 
his  stick  deftly  over  the  faces  of  both  steers ; 
and  as  they  came  to  an  unwilling  stop,  he  gave 
Walden  an  astonished,  sarcastic  gaze. 

It  was  hard  for  Walden  to  control  his  excite- 
38 


WHY  ELI  WAS  NOT   SO  GLAD  39 

ment  and  speak  calmly  as  he  drew  rein ;  but  he 
succeeded. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Eli  ?  "  he  said,  with  a  con 
strained  and  somewhat  sallow  smile.  "  How 
are  all  the  folks?" 

Instead  of  answering  his  questions,  the  oldest 
brother  regarded  him  with  rather  less  astonish 
ment  and  rather  more  sarcasm  in  his  gaze,  and 
said,  bluntly,  — 

"Come  back,  have  ye?  Where  did  ye  get 
that  horse  ?  " 

"  It's  a  borrowed  one,"  said  Walden ;  and  he 
was  going  on  to  explain  as  soon  as  he  could  get 
a  good  breath  to  keep  his  voice  from  quavering, 
when  Eli  broke  in  again,  — 

"  Of  course,  I  know  it's  a  borrowed  one,  — 
that  is,  without  it's  stolen ;  for  I  didn't  for  a 
moment  suppose  you  owned  him.  But  I  asked 
where  you  got  him." 

"  And  I  was  going  to  tell  you  I  got  him  of 
Mr.  Brooke,  of  Brooke  Brothers,  who  keep  the 
big  store  in  Rome,"  Walden  answered,  with 
spirit,  glad  to  let  his  brother  know  he  had  such 
a  friend. 


40  A  START  IN  LIFE 

"  Why  didn't  you  tell  me,  then  ?  "  Eli  de* 
manded. 

"  Because  you  were  so  short  with  me  I  didn't 
have  a  chance.  There  was  no  need  of  your  " 
—  Walden  then  remembered  Mr.  Brooke's  ad 
vice,  and  checked  himself. 

"No  need  of  my  what?" 

Thus  urged,  Walden  answered,  firmly,  "No 
need  of  your  being  so  quick  to  put  in  that  fling 
about  the  horse  being  stolen.  Whatever  else 
you  can  say  of  me,  you  know  very  well  I  never 
deserved  any  such  taunt  as  that." 

"  You  mean  to  say  you  never  took  anything 
that  didn't  belong  to  you  ?  "  said  Eli. 

"  Never  !  "  exclaimed  Walden,  hotly. 

"  Oh  !  haven't  you  ?  "  sneered  Eli.  "  Whoa  ! 
back  !  "  and  he  rattled  his  stick  on  the  horns  of 
the  restless  steers. 

"  If  you  think  I  have,  what  is  it  ?  "  asked 
Walden. 

"  You've  taken  your  services,  which  belong 
to  me  till  you  are  twenty-one,"  said  Eli. 

"  You  might  have  had  them,  if  you  had  been 
to  me  what  father  supposed  you  would  be  when 


WHY  ELI   WAS   NOT   SO   GLAD  41 

he  made  that  will.  He  never  meant  that  I 
should  be  treated  as  you  treat  those  dumb 
beasts !  " 

Walden's  face  flushed,  and  he  spoke  with  the 
memory  of  his  wrongs  surging  in  his  voice. 

"You  were  to  work  for  me  till  you  were 
twenty-one,"  said  Eli.  "  Have  you  come  back 
to  stay  ?  " 

"  No,  Eli,"  Walden  replied,  with  more  steadi 
ness  of  tone.  "  I  have  made  an  engagement 
with  Mr.  Brooke,  who  loaned  me  this  horse." 

Eli  studied  him  with  a  bitter  sneer,  and  after 
a  moment's  silence  rejoined,  — 

"  You  think  you  can  do  better,  I  suppose." 

"  If  I  get  kind  treatment  and  encouraging 
words,  I  call  that  doing  better,"  said  Walden, 
looking  down  with  dignity  from  his  horse. 

Eli  hesitated,  and  appeared  for  a  moment  to 
be  swallowing  something  very  disagreeable. 
The  truth  is,  he  had  missed  Walden's  help  on 
the  farm,  and  had  felt  pricks  of  conscience  on 
account  of  his  own  harsh  conduct  towards  him. 
Hearing  how  hard  he  worked  and  how  ill 
fed  he  was  in  Thomas  Tadmore's  service,  hb 


42  A   STAKT   IS   LIFE 

had  until  this  hour  fostered  hopes  of  seeing 
return  penitent  and  submissive.  To  see  him 
come  back  proud  and  resolute,  well  clothed  and 
mounted  on  a  good  horse,  was  not  an  agreeable 
surprise. 

"  Small  loss  !  guess  I  can  stand  it  if  he  can," 
he  had  said  many  times  of  Walden  in  his  ab 
sence,  and  he  had  even  tried  to  think  the  farm 
would  get  along  as  well  without  him.  But  all 
the  time  his  inmost  thought  said  otherwise ; 
and  he  was  forced  to  respect  and  prize  his 
brother  all  the  more  since  the  Brookes  of  Rome 
had  taken  him  up. 

Perhaps,  by  a  little  more  conciliatory  treat 
ment  he  might  yet  win  the  lost  one  back.  It 
was  a  hard  thing  for  Eli  to  make  up  his  mind 
to.  but  after  a  while  he  swallowed  the  unpala 
table  morsel  in  his  throat,  and  said,  in  a  tone 
that  reminded  Walden  of  the  old  days  before 
their  father  died,  and  they  were  still  like  broth 
ers,— 

"I  guess  you'd  better  come  home,  Walden. 
Mother  misses  ye,  and  I'd  do  anything  for 
her,  as  I  suppose  you  would.  Come  back, 


WHY   ELI  WAS   NOT   SO  GLAD  43 

and  it  sha'n't  be  my  fault  if  there's  any  more 
trouble." 

Walden  was  touched.  That  Eli  should 
speak  to  him  in  that  way  almost  realized  his 
former  dream  of  triumph.  But  something 
deeper  in  his  heart  was  stirred,  as  he  answered, 
with  almost  tearful  emotion,  — 

"  I  would  do  anything  for  her,  as  you  know. 
For  her  sake  I  stayed  with  you  months  longer 
than  I  should  have  done  if  I  had  had  my  own 
way.  And  if  you,"  he  could  not  help  adding 
reproachfully,  "  if  you  had  cared  half  as  much 
for  her  feelings  then  as  you  seem  to  now,  you 
would  have  treated  me  more  as  she  always  said 
I  should  be  treated." 

Eli  stood  by  the  steers,  looking  up  with  a 
scowl  at  the  boy  on  the  horse  looking  earnestly 
down  and  speaking  these  plain  words.  It  was 
some  seconds  before  he  could  bring  himself  to 
reply,  — 

"I  don't  pretend  that  I  always  did  just 
right;  there's  nobody  but  what  makes  mis 
takes  now  and  then.  I'm  quick,  and  maybe 
too  arbitrary.  I  felt  I  had  got  to  take  father's 


44  A  START  IN  LIFE 

place  and  do  my  duty  to  the  younger  children. 
I  always  meant  to  do  right  by  you.  I'll  prove 
it  to  you,  if  you  care  to  come  back  and  try  it 
again." 

"  If  you  had  talked  this  way  six  months  ago," 
said  Walden,  bitterly,  "I  never  should  have 
gone.  But  it's  too  late  now.  I  have  made 
different  arrangements." 

It  was  stinging  to  the  pride  of  Eli  to  find 
that  he  had  humbled  himself  in  vain.  He  did 
not  ask  what  the  different  arrangements  were, 
but  turned  and  brandished  his  whip  over 
the  steers,  playing  a  lively  tattoo  on  their  horns 
and  heads. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A  SHOBT  LEAVE-TAKING  AND  A  LONG  JOUBNET. 

BY  this  time  the  strange  boy  on  horseback, 
who  had  stopped  to  talk  with  Eli  in  the  road, 
had  been  recognized  by  the  eyes  peering  at  him 
from  the  kitchen  windows.  As  he  dismounted 
at  the  gate,  his  younger  brothers,  Amos  and 
James,  came  running  from  the  barn,  with  ears 
of  corn  they  had  been  husking  still  in  their 
hands;  his  elder  sister  Susan  came  smiling 
from  the  house,  with  a  cheery  welcome ;  and, 
last  of  all,  out  tottered  his  gray-haired  mother, 
to  fling  herself  on  his  neck  with  sobs  of  joy. 

She  clung  to  him  with  smiles  and  tears  as 
they  all  went  into  the  house  together.  Susan 
walked  by  his  other  side,  proudly  clasping  his 
arm ;  and  the  boys  capered  about,  with  grins 
and  exclamations  of  delight.  Then  Walden, 
seated  in  the  midst  of  them,  had  his  story  to 
45 


46  A   START   IN  LIFE 

tell,  and  questions  to  ask,  and  there  was  more 
talk  than  would  fill  the  chapters  which  we 
must  hasten  to  give  to  other  scenes. 

Mrs.  Westlake  fondly  hoped  that  her  boy 
had  come  home  to  remain.  But  she  could  not 
disapprove  of  the  engagement  he  had  made 
with  Mr.  Brooke ;  and  Amos  and  James  clam 
orously  wished  that  they  could  go  too.  Eli 
had  never  treated  them  so  harshly  as  he  had 
Walden ;  perhaps  because,  there  being  so  much 
more  difference  between  his  age  and  theirs,  he 
had  felt  less  necessity  of  asserting  his  authority 
over  them,  and  they  less  inclination  to  rebel. 
But  they  fretted  under  his  tyranny,  neverthe 
less,  and  envied  Walden  his  freedom,  and  be^ 
wailed  the  fate  that  kept  them  still  at  home. 

Considering  that  his  presence  could  not, 
under  the  circumstances,  be  very  welcome  to 
Eli,  Walden  declined  to  stay  for  dinner,  but  he 
partook  of  a  lunch  which  Susan  set  out  for  him 
on  the  kitchen  table,  and  then  helped  his  moth 
er  do  up  a  little  bundle  which  he  was  to  take 
away  with  him  on  the  saddle. 

Into  that  bundle  he  was  careful  to  slip  his 


A  SHORT  LEAVE-TAKING  47 

Arithmetic,  which  he  so  much  regretted  Dot 
having  studied  more  diligently  at  school,  along 
with  two  or  three  other  books  which  he  might 
find  useful  or  entertaining  in  the  back  country 
where  he  was  going. 

As  he  was  making  a  final  knot  in  the  great 
red  handkerchief  which  had  been  his  father's, 
but  which  his  mother  gave  him  for  his  bundle, 
Eli  came  in. 

"Here  is  Walden!"  cried  Mrs.  Westlake, 
longing  to  see  the  brothers  reconciled.  "  Come 
to  make  us  a  little  visit ;  and  now  he  is  starting 
off  again." 

"  Yes,  I  see,"  said  Eli,  grimly,  standing  in  the 
door. 

"  And  only  think,"  she  added,  "  he  is  going 
to  the  Genesee  country  with  Mr.  Jonathan 
Brooke  ! " 

This  was  news  to  the  oldest  brother,  but  he 
did  not  betray  any  surprise.  Since  Walden 
was  not  to  stay  and  help  him  on  the  farm,  he 
cared  little  where  he  went. 

"  If  it  don't  beat  all !  "  exclaimed  good  Mrs. 
Westlake,  all  tears. 


48  A   START   IN   LIFE 

"  Beats  all,"  said  Eli,  stolid  and  sarcastic. 

At  daybreak  the  next  morning,  Mr.  Brooke 
and  Walden  set  off  with  a  load  of  goods  for 
the  new  settlement.  The  stout  horse  Walden 
had  ridden  home  made  one  of  the  span  that 
was  to  haul  the  heavy  wagon  over  the  rough 
roads,  past  frontier  farms  and  villages,  into  the 
great  wilderness  beyond. 

During  much  of  the  first  day  they  were 
within  sight  of  settlements,  which  became 
more  and  more  scattered  as  they  kept  on. 
The  next  day  they  entered  almost  continuous 
woods,  following  the  trail  which  led  to  the 
Holland  Land  Company's  immense  "Pur 
chase"  in  western  New  York. 

Buffalo,  on  the  farther  borders  of  that  Pur 
chase,  was  then  a  village  of  two  thousand 
inhabitants.  But  along  the  road  and  its 
branches  there  were  only,  at  long  intervals, 
log-huts  which  served  as  taverns,  and  here  and 
there  a  clearing.  Syracuse  was  then  "  Cossit's 
Corners ; "  it  was  not  even  a  village. 

The  Genesee  River  was  not  yet  bridged,  but 
travellers  crossed  at  the  mouth,  in  a  ferry-boat 


A   SHOUT   LEAVE-TAKING  49 

when  it  was  open,  and  on  the  ice  when  it  was 
frozen.  Mr.  Brooke,  in  his  talks  with  Walden 
on  the  journey,  expressed  regret  that  he  had 
not  secured  land  on  the  site  of  certain  falls ; 
and  predicted  the  rise  of  a  thriving  town  there 
some  day. 

"My  brother  and  I  were  thinking  of  that 
purchase  when  Mr.  Rochester  and  his  friends 
stepped  in  before  us.  They  are  going  to  call  it 
4  Rochesterville.'  They  had  better  call  it  just 
4  Rochester,'  I  tell  'em,  and  leave  off  the  ville. 
They've  got  five  or  six  houses  there  already." 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  a  great  city. 

The  ground  continued  frozen  much  of  the 
time ;  but  the  road,  winding  among  great 
trunks  and  passing  through  hollows  and  over 
the  roots  of  trees,  was  rough  and  uneven. 

"There's  going  to  be  a  canal  cut  right 
through  this  region,  running  the  whole  length 
of  the  State,  and  connecting  the  Hudson  with 
Lake  Erie;  and  that  before  many  years," 
Mr.  Brooke  averred.  "  Folks  call  me  over- 
sanguine.  But  you  will  live  to  see  it,  Walden, 
and  I  haven't  much  doubt  but  that  I  shall." 


50  A   START   IN   LIFE 

"  It's  a  magnificent  idea !  "  said  Walden,  as 
he  helped  pry  a  wheel  out  of  a  rut.  But  it 
seemed  to  him  a  wild  one. 

Fortunately  for  his  reputation  for  sanity, 
Mr.  Brooke  did  not  predict  a  railroad  which 
they  should  both  live  to  ride  on  over  that 
very  spot,  making  more  than  their  entire  day's 
journey  in  an  hour. 

They  walked  much  of  the  way  beside  or 
behind  the  team,  and  put  up  at  the  cabins 
which  served  as  taverns,  sleeping  generally  on 
the  floor,  beds  being  a  scarce  luxury.  It  was  a 
toilsome  trip,  as  you  may  well  believe.  Even 
the  wildness  of  the  forest  scenery  became 
monotonous  after  the  second  or  third  day; 
and  Walden  was  glad  enough  when,  a  few 
miles  off  the  main  track,  they  one  evening 
crossed  a  tumbling  brook  and  entered  a  stumpy 
clearing,  which  Mr.  Brooke  called  the  "  settle 
ment." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WALDEN    ENTERS    THE  NEW    SETTLEMENT,    AND    DISCOV 
ERS  AN   OLD  ACQUAINTANCE   EATING  JOHNNY-CAKE. 

WALDEN  could  distinguish  three  or  four 
huts  and  log-houses  against  the  background  of 
the  gloomy  woods,  and  one  skeleton  frame 
rising  over  the  banks  of  the  stream. 

"  I'm  glad  to  see  that !  "  said  Mr.  Brooke, 
with  satisfaction.  "  It's  our  sawmill.  The 
first  framed  building  in  the  settlement;  it 
has  got  to  saw  the  boards  to  cover  its  own 
back." 

The  saw  was  in  the  wagon,  under  their  feet, 
and  some  of  the  necessary  gearing  was  packed 
behind. 

"Well,  here  we  are!"  said  Mr.  Brooke, 
turning  up  to  one  of  the  log-houses,  in  which 
not  a  light  was  to  be  seen,  although  it  was  now 
deep  dusk. 

"  Where  is  the  store  ?  "   asked  Walden. 
51 


52  A   START   IN   LIFE 

"  This  is  it,"  replied  Mr.  Brooke. 

Walden  was  not  expecting  a  very  brilliant 
display  there  in  the  backwoods,  yet  his  idea  of 
a  store  went  a  trifle  beyond  that  gloomy  log- 
house,  with  one  or  two  dark  windows  and  a 
closed  door. 

44  Ase  is  probably  over  at  Gadbury's,  eating 
his  supper,"  said  Mr.  Brooke.  "  Run  and  get 
him,  or  ask  Gadbury  to  send  somebody  to  help, 
while  I'm  unhitching  the  team." 

"  Gadbury 's  "  was  the  tavern,  another  log- 
house  a  few  rods  away.  A  man  and  a  boy 
were  grinding  an  axe  by  the  light  of  an  open 
lantern  hung  on  a  peg  by  the  door ;  and  within, 
as  he  approached,  Walden  could  see  some  men 
at  supper  before  a  glowing  fireplace. 

He  did  his  errand  to  the  man  holding  the 
axe  on  the  stone.  The  man  lifted  it  to  feel 
the  edge ;  while  the  stone,  relieved  of  the 
pressure,  and  impelled  by  a  final  effort  of  the 
boy  at  the  crank,  spun  through  the  gurgling 
water  of  the  trough. 

"I'm  Gadbury,"  said  the  man;  "an'  I  thought 
it  might  be  Mr.  Brooke  ;  thought  I  knowed  his 


WALDEN  ENTERS  THE  NEW  SETTLEMENT    53 

voice.  Ase ! "  —  calling  in  at  the  door  —  "  Mr. 
Brooke  has  come  and  wants  ye.  There,  Sam  ! 
guess  that'll  do  fer  to-night;  though  I  might 
put  a  leetle  finer  edge  on't  by  daylight,  tell  yer 
dad." 

"  I  guess  the  edge  is  fine  enough,"  said  the 
boy,  straightening  his  shoulders.  "I  druther 
go  a-fishin'  all  day,  any  time,  than  turn  grin'- 
stun  half  an  hour." 

"  Wai,  mos'  boys  would,"  said  the  tavern- 
keeper,  with  a  quiet  chuckle.  "An'  there's 
things  I  druther  du  'n  grind  folks's  axes  fer 
'em.  But  yer  dad's  welcome." 

"  He  says  the'  ain't  another  man  that  can  put 
such  an  edge  on  a  tool  as  you  can,  nowheres," 
replied  the  boy,  shouldering  the  axe  and  start 
ing  off. 

"That's  the  way  they  all  talk  when  they 
want  to  git  favors  out  of  ol*  man  Gadbury," 
said  the  tavern-keeper,  good-naturedly.  "I 
see  through  their  palaver,  but  I  'commodate 
'em  all  the  same.  On  hand,  Ase  ?  " 

"I  suppose  I  must  say  yes,  though  I  shall 
feel  for  the  rest  of  my  natural  life  that  I  hadn't 


54  A  START  IN  LIFE 

quite  finished  my  supper,"  said  a  coatless  young 
man,  coming  away  from  the  table  with  his 
mouth  full  and  a  piece  of  Johnny-cake  in  his 
hand. 

The  voice  gave  Walden  an  unpleasant  start, 
and,  as  he  was  going  off  with  Mr.  Gadbury,  he 
turned  to  glance  back  at  the  speaker. 

"It  can't  be!"  he  thought.  "Yes,  it  is, 
though ! "  And,  staring  in  through  the  open 
doorway,  he  saw  the  young  man  take  the 
Johnny-cake  in  his  teeth,  while  he  pulled  down 
a  coat  from  some  peg  and  put  it  on. 

He  had  a  burly  figure,  stout  arms,  and  coarse 
features,  with  prominent  cheek-bones ;  to  which 
the  wedge  of  Johnny-cake  in  his  mouth  lent 
a  grotesque  aspect,  in  the  eyes  of  Walden. 
The  boy's  first  shock  of  surprise  quickly  gave 
place  to  merry  recollections,  and  some  such 
sense  of  the  ludicrous  as  one  feels  at  sight  of  a 
pretentious  person  in  a  new  and  undignified 
situation. 

"  Who  would  have  thought  of  ever  running 
against  him  out  here  in  the  woods  ?  "  he  said  to 
himself,  as  he  hurried  on  after  the  tavern- 


IN  THE   NEW   SETTLEMENT.      Pnge  54. 


WALDEN  ENTEKS  THE  NEW  SETTLEMENT     56 

keeper  and  his  lantern.  "Oh,  wouldn't  the 
boys  laugh  if  they  knew ! " 

"  The  wagon  can  stand  there  till  morning," 
Mr.  Brooke  was  saying,  "with  all  but  a  few 
things  I'll  have  Ase  take  into  the  store.  Then, 
if  you'll  care  for  the  horses,  and  give  us  some 
supper,  Gadbury,  we'll  be  grateful." 

"I'll  do  both,"  said  the  tavern-keeper,  lifting 
his  lantern  to  take  a  view  of  the  load.  "I 
hope,  for  one  thing,  you've  brought  three  or 
four  good  grin'-stones.  Settlement's  been  suf- 
ferin'  for  grin'-stones.  Folks  come  five  or  six 
mile  to  grind  on  mine,  er  send  their  axes  fer 
me  to  grind  for  'em." 

"  I've  got  two,"  said  Mr.  Brooke ;  "  and  half 
a  dozen  more  coming  by  water  to  the  mouth  of 
the  river."  He  stopped  to  give  the  burly  young 
man  some  directions  about  the  goods  to  be 
taken  into  the  store,  then  said  to  Walden, 
"Come,  boy,  our  hardships  are  over  for  one 
day;  let's  go  in  and  get  warm,  and  see  what 
they  can  give  us  for  supper." 

Walden  kept  the  wagon  between  him  and 
the  young  man;  then,  taking  his  bundle  of 


56  A  START  IN  LIFE 

clothes  and  hurrying  to  Mr.  Brooke's  side,  he 
said,  in  a  low,  excited  voice,  with  a  smothered 
laugh  in  it,  — 

"  Is  that  the  man  you  said  you  had  left  in 
charge  of  the  store  ?  " 

"Ase?  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Brooke.  "Didn't  I 
tell  you  his  name  was  Ase  ?  " 

"I  believe  you  did;  but  I  had  no  idea"  — 
the  boy's  words  became  lost  in  a  titter. 

"Why,  what?"  said  Mr.  Brooke.  "Did 
you  ever  see  or  hear  of  him  before?" 

"You'd  think  so!"  replied  Walden.  "He 
used  to  write  his  name  A.  Randolph  Hedgewick  ; 
and  I  remember,  now,  some  of  the  girls  said  his 
first  name  was  Asa." 

"  You  don't  mean  to  tell  me  !  "  Mr.  Brooke 
exclaimed,  laughing,  too,  as  he  caught  the  drift 
of  Walden's  explanation. 

"Yes,"  giggled  the  boy.  "  He's  the  big-feel 
ing  tyrant  of  a  master  the  boys  turned  out  of 
our  school  last  winter !  " 

"  I'm  sorry  for  that,"  said  Mr.  Brooke,  more 
seriously.  "He's  my  mainstay  here  in  the 
store." 


WALDEN  ENTERS  THE  NEW  SETTLEMENT     57 

Walden  made  no  reply.  He  was  sorry,  too, 
foreseeing  no  very  great  satisfaction  in  the 
renewal  of  his  acquaintance  with  Mr.  A.  Ran 
dolph  Hedgewick. 


CHAPTER  Vin. 

A  BACKWOODS  LODGING,   ABOUT  WHICH  THERE  WAS 
DESTINED  TO  BE   SOME  DISPUTE. 

IN  the  tavern  they  found  a  glowing  back 
log,  a  supper  of  pork-chop  and  Johnny-cake,  and 
the  talk  of  backwoodsmen  awaiting  them ;  all 
which  Walden  enjoyed  until  he  caught  him 
self  nodding  in  the  corner  of  the  fireplace,  and 
heard  Mr.  Brooke  saying,  — 

"  Well,  Gadbury,  can  you  find  a  place  for  this 
boy?" 

Walden  looked  up  with  a  start,  and  saw  the 
good-natured  tavern-keeper  looking  down  at 
him  on  his  stool,  with  a  whimsical  puzzled  ex 
pression. 

"  I  must  find  a  place,  er  make  one,  fuzino  ! " 
Gadbury  replied,  puckering  his  lean  face  and 
scratching  his  rough  head. 

Fuzino,  a  contraction  of  "  as  fur  as  I  know," 
and  equivalent  to  "  for  aught  I  know,"  was  a 
58 


A  BACKWOODS   LODGING  59 

common  enough  expression  among  New  Eng 
land  and  New  York  country  people  in  those 
early  days ;  and  it  was  one  of  two  that  were  as 
pepper  and  salt  to  the  landlord's  rustic  speech, 
sprinkling  it  and  giving  it  a  flavor.  The  other 
was,  "  Id'n'o'n'ti,"  signifying,  "  I  do  not  know, 
not  I." 

"  The'  ain't  the  fust  hooter  o'  room  in  this 
'ere  house,"  Gadbury  went  on  ;  "  it's  chuck-full, 
beds  an'  floors.  But  I  guess  mebbe  I  can  du 
suthin'  fer  him  in  the  'riginal  stand." 

Walden  was  wondering  what  the  "'riginal 
stand  "  was,  when  Gadbury  lighted,  by  means 
of  a  pine-sliver,  the  stub  of  tallow  candle  in  the 
lantern  which  he  gave  him  to  carry.  Then 
saying,  "Fetch  along  your  passel,  'f  ye  want 
anything  in't "  (meaning  the  boy's  small  bun 
dle  brought  from  home),  he  took  up  some  hot 
coals  on  the  fire-shovel,  and  led  the  way  out-of- 
doors. 

The  lantern,  which  was  of  perforated  tin, 
bristling  like  a  porcupine  with  rays  for  quills, 
shed  its  nebulous  glimmer  along  a  path  which 
took  them  to  the  bank  of  the  babbling  stream. 


60  A   START  IN  LIFE 

There  Gadbury,  with  his  coals  still  glowing 
before  him  on  the  shovel,  threw  open  the  door 
of  a  hut,  and,  entering,  emptied  them  in  what 
proved  to  be  a  fireplace  in  a  corner. 

Walden,  at  his  request,  opened  the  lantern- 
door  for  more  light ;  with  the  aid  of  which  the 
landlord  gathered  bark  and  sticks  from  a  pile 
near  the  hearth  (if  that  could  be  called  a  hearth 
which  was  mere  native  earth  covered  with 
ashes),  and  cast  them  on  the  coals. 

"  This  'ere,"  said  Gadbury,  "  's  the  'riginal 
tavern-stand,  'n'  the  fust  thing  shape  of  a  house, 
fuzino,  'n  the  hull  country.  Jest  a  cabin  o' 
poles,  as  you  see ;  floor  o'  chestnut  slabs, 
though  'twuz  a  long  while  'fore  it  had  any 
floor  at  all,  er  any  winder  er  door,  save  an' 
except  we  had  a  hole  cut  fer  a  door.  An'  nary 
nail  in  it." 

"  How  could  you  build  without  nails  ?  "  Wal 
den  inquired. 

"  How  could  ye  ?  Jest  as  a  man  can  du  e'en- 
a'most  anything  in  natur  he's  got  to  du.  We 
didn't  have  no  nails,  an'  we  got  along  without 
nails;  used  wooden  pegs  instid.  But,  soon  as 


A  BACKWOODS   LODGING  61 

ever  I  had  neighbors  to  help,  I  sot  to  work,  cut 
logs,  an'  rolled  up  t'other  house,  an'  had  things 
in  style,  fer  a  new  settlement." 

There  were  two  beds,  side  by  side,  made  up 
on  the  floor ;  and  Walden,  looking  about  him 
by  the  gleam  of  the  kindling  fire,  which  soon 
outshone  the  feeble  lantern-light,  asked  which 
he  was  to  sleep  in. 

"  Wai,  I  guess,  nary  one  o'  these,"  Gadbury 
replied.  "  Some  o'  my  boarders  '11  be  turnin' 
inter  'em,  'fore  a  gre't  while.  But  you  can  go 
to  roost  up  there,"  casting  his  eye  up  a  short 
ladder. 

Walden  thought  at  first  that  he  was  expected 
to  perch,  like  a  featherless  fowl,  on  the  top 
rounds ;  looking  for  which  he  perceived  that 
the  upper  end  of  the  ladder  disappeared  in  the 
darkness  of  a  loft  overhead. 

"There's  a  straw  bed  up  there,"  said  the 
tavern-keeper,  "  with  on'y  one  man  in't ;  and 
you'll  haf  to  sleep  with  him,  fuzino,  'thout  you 
roll  yourself  up  in  a  blanket  er  bear-skin  on  the 
floor.  Now  make  yerself  to  hum ;  and  don't 
be  afeered  o'  burnin'  a  leetle  wood.  It's  cheap 


62  A  STAET   IN   LIFE 

in  this  country ;  don't  cost  nothin'  but  elbow- 
grease,  an'  I  guess  by  your  looks  't  you've  got 
your  share  o'  that,  to  help  us  out,  when  we 
want  a  back-log  or  fore-stick." 

44  What  time  will  these  men  be  coming  to 
bed?"  Walden  asked;  "particularly  the  one 
that's  to  sleep  up  there  with  me !  " 

44  Id'n'o'n'ti,  but  not  long  fust,"  the  tavern- 
keeper  announced,  as  he  took  up  the  shovel 
and  the  lantern  and  left  the  hut. 

Walden  then  mounted  the  short  ladder,  and, 
putting  his  head  through  the  opening  into  the 
loft,  looked  for  the  bed,  one  undivided  half  of 
which  had  been  assigned  him  for  the  night. 
The  reflection  of  the  fire  below  revealed  it, 
behind  the  ladder,  made  up  under  the  low  roof. 
It  was  so  near  the  opening  that  he  concluded 
the  ladder  must  be  of  use  to  prevent  the  person 
who  should  sleep  on  the  front  side  from  going 
through  to  the  ground  floor,  in  case  he  should 
roll  out  of  bed. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DEMONSTRATION  BY  A  SCHOOLMASTER  THAT  A  MAN  MAY 
SOMETIMES  COME  DOWN  A  LADDER  MORE  RAPIDLY 
THAN  HE  WENT  UP. 

IT  was  a  gloomy  place,  and  silent,  but  for  the 
crackling  of  the  fire  beneath,  and  the  plashy 
murmurs  of  the  brook  outside.  Just  as  he  was 
turning  to  descend  the  ladder,  footsteps  ap 
proached  the  cabin,  the  door  was  pushed  open, 
and  a  man  entered.  He  had  a  burly  figure,  and 
Walden,  looking  down  from  his  perch,  could  see 
a  pair  of  prominent  cheek-bones  turned  up  at 
him  in  the  firelight. 

"  Hallo  !  "  said  the  comer,  in  a  voice  whose 
arbitrary  tones  reminded  the  boy  disagreeably 
of  old  times,  "  what  ye  doing  there  ?  " 

"  Looking  to  see  where  I  am  to  sleep,"  Wal 
den  replied,  stepping  down  the  ladder. 

"  You  needn't  be  looking  in  that  direction  ; 
that's  my  bed."  The  voice  sounded  so  natural 
63 


64  A   START  IN   LIFE 

that  it  seemed  as  if  it  must  add  immediately, 
—  "  Stand  out  here  in  the  floor,  and  I'll  'tend 
to  your  case  !  " 

"  Excuse  me,  Mr.  Hedgewick  ! "  said  Wai- 
den,  slipping  to  the  ground.  "I  haven't  the 
faintest  kind  of  a  wish  to  have  you  for  a  bed 
fellow  ;  but  Mr.  Gadbury  said  I  was  to  sleep  up 
there." 

It  was  an  unusual  thing  for  the  former 
schoolmaster  of  Whitestown  to  be  called  any 
thing  but  "  Ase,"  or  "  Asy,"  there  in  the  back 
woods  ;  and  perhaps  something  in  Walden's 
voice  sounded  familiar  to  his  ears.  The  two 
stood  face  to  face  in  the  little  fi relit  cabin, 
staring,  —  Walden  with  a  troubled  smile,  Mr. 
A.  Randolph  Hedgewick  with  a  scowl  of 
amazed  displeasure,  followed  by  a  vigorous  ex 
clamation,  — 

"  You're  one  of  the  Westlake  boys  !  You're 
Walden  ! " 

"  That's  my  name,"  said  Walden.  "  And  I 
used  to  go  to  school  to  you." 

"  What  business  have  you  here  ? "  the  man 
demanded. 


DEMONSTRATION   BY   A   SCHOOLMASTER      65 

"  Mr.  Brooke's  business,"  the  boy  replied. 
"I  came  with  him." 

"  Well,  when  he  took  you,"  said  Mr.  A.  Ran 
dolph  Hedgewick,  "  he  took  one  of  the  worst 
of  the  worst  lot  of  boys  in  Oneida  County,  and 
I  shall  tell  him  so." 

"  You  can  tell  him  what  you  please,"  rejoined 
Walden,  indignantly.  "  I  never  had  any  quar 
rel  with  you,  Mr.  Hedgewick,  and,  even  if  I  did 
have,  I  don't  see  the  use  of  bringing  it  up,  out 
here  in  a  new  place  like  this." 

"  Maybe  you  don't ;  but  I  do."  Mr.  Hedge 
wick  put  one  foot  and  one  hand  on  the  ladder. 
"  My  quarrel  was  with  the  whole  school ;  and, 
though  you  was  too  much  of  a  coward  to  have 
a  hand  in  the  final  tussle,  I  saw  you  laugh  when 
they  tumbled  me  into  the  snow." 

"  I  couldn't  help  laughing !  "  said  Walden, 
with  a  reminiscent  chuckle.  "  Who  could  ?  " 

"  The  treatment  I  received  from  that  school," 
Mr.  Hedgewick  went  on,  with  a  fierce  look,  "  I 
never  have,  I  never  can,  I  never  will  forgive  !  " 
So  saying,  he  went  quickly  up  the  ladder. 

"  Seems  to  me  it's  the  school  that  has  the 


66  A   START   IN   LIFE 

most  to  forgive,"  said  Walden,  quickly,  but 
with  a  full  heart.  "  Look  here  !  what  are  you 
doing  ?  " 

Mr.  A.  Randolph  Hedgewick  was  pulling  the 
ladder  up  after  him  into  the  loft. 

"You  don't  want  me  for  a  bedfellow,"  he  re 
plied,  "  and  no  more  do  I  want  you.  We're 
perfectly  agreed  as  to  that." 

"  Yes  !  "  cried  Walden.  "  But,  after  what  the 
tavern-keeper  said,  you've  no  more  right  to  the 
bed  than  I  have.  Let  down  the  ladder !  " 

It  was  too  long  to  go  into  the  loft.  So 
Hedgewick  pulled  the  upper  end  of  it  down  on 
his  bed  and  sat  on  it,  leaving  the  lower  end 
tipped  up  close  under  the  floor. 

"  Will  you  let  -me  have  that  ladder  ?  "  Wal 
den  demanded. 

"  Who  are  you?  "  retorted  Hedgewick,  show 
ing  his  face  at  the  opening,  with  a  sarcastic 
grin  Walden  knew  of  old,  but  which  did  not 
affright  him  now. 

"  I'll  let  you  know  who  I  am,  if  you  don't 
give  me  my  rights,"  replied  Walden.  "  I  don't 
want  your  bed,  and  I  don't  say  I  shall  go  up 


DEMONSTRATION   BY  A   SCHOOLMASTER     67 

the  ladder,  but  I'll  have  it,  at  least  one  end 
of  it ! " 

So  saying,  he  caught  hold  of  the  lower  round, 
which  was  easily  done,  the  cabin  being  low,  and 
swayed  upon  it  heavily,  with  an  astounding  re 
sult. 

Hedgewick,  as  I  have  said,  was  seated  on  the 
upper  end;  he  was  at  the  same  time  leaning 
forward  to  jeer  at  the  boy  below.  Down  went 
Walden's  end  with  a  jerk ;  up  went  the  other 
to  the  roof;  when  with  a  cry  of  consternation 
Mr.  A.  Randolph  Hedgewick  shot  head  fore 
most  through  the  opening,  and  made  a  help 
less,  sprawling  plunge  to  the  floor. 


CHAPTER   X. 

SHOWS  WHO  DID,  AND  WHO  DID  NOT,  SLEEP  IN  THE  LOFT 
AT  THE  TOP  OF  THE   LADDER. 

WALDEN  was  as  much  astonished  as  Hedge- 
wick  himself  at  the  effect  produced  by  that 
sudden  spring  and  pull  at  the  ladder.  He  did 
not  know  at  first  but  the  ex-schoolmaster  was 
coming  down  from  the  loft  in  that  abrupt  fash 
ion  to  eat  him. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  Mr.  A. 
Randolph  Hedgewick  had  no  such  cannibal  in 
tention.  While  seeming  to  clutch  wildly  at 
Walden's  legs  in  his  descent,  he  was  merely 
endeavoring  to  save  himself  from  a  dangerous 
fall.  The  boy  sprang  out  of  his  way,  and 
tumbled  backwards  upon  the  beds,  which 
tripped  his  heels  and  received  him  somewhat 
more  hospitably  than  the  rough-hewn  floor 
welcomed  the  plunging  schoolmaster. 

Then  the  two  sat  up,  Walden  on  the  nearest 


SHOWS   WHO   SLEPT   IN  THE  LOFT  69 

bed,  with  his  knees  in  the  air,  bracing  himself 
with  his  hands  behind  him  ;  Mr.  Hedgewick 
on  the  floor,  holding  by  the  ladder  with  one 
hand,  and  feeling  his  neck  with  the  other. 
Walden  ventured  to  express  a  hope  that  it 
wasn't  broken. 

"  No  thanks  to  you  if  it  ain't !  "  Hedgewick 
muttered,  wrathfully.  "Laugh,  will  ye,  like 
a  fool ! "  For  Walden  was  again  overcome  by 
most  untimely  mirth,  even  as  when  he  saw  the 
big  boys  take  their  revenge  on  the  schoolmas 
ter  by  keeling  him  over  in  the  snowdrifts. 

Mr.  A.  Randolph  Hedgewick  —  or  shall  we 
follow  the  fashion  of  the  settlers,  and  call  him 
for  short  Ase  ?  —  looked  about  for  some  missile 
to  hurl ;  but  fortunately  only  the  ladder  was 
within  his  reach,  and  that  was  hardly  available 
as  a  projectile. 

Walden  laughed  until  he  fell  back  again  on 
the  bed,  and  lay  there  shaking. 

"  Really  —  I  can't  help  —  help  it !  "  he  said, 
chokingly.  "  If  I'd  seen  my  great-great-grand 
father  come  down  a  ladder  that  way,  I  believe 
I  should  have  laughed!  You  looked  like  a 


70  A   START   IN   LIFE 

bear  and  a  spread  eagle  combined ! "  And  the 
more  he  tried  to  control  himself,  the  more  he 
was  convulsed. 

"  Lucky  I'm  too  dizzy  now  to  take  ye  by  the 
heels  and  snap  your  ears  off !  "  said  Ase ;  at 
the  same  time  feeling  his  own  ears,  as  if  to 
make  sure  they  were  not  missing.  "But 
you'll  get  your  pay  some  time !  " 

"Pay  for  what?  For  laughing?  "  said  Wai- 
den.  "  But  you  don't  consider,  Mr.  Hedge- 
wick  !  If  it  had  been  the  President  of  these 
United  States,  I  should  have  grinned!  It's 
from  no  spite  against  you ;  but  to  see  any 
man  dive  out  of  a  hole  in  a  floor  that  way, 
and  dance  with  his  heels  up  and  his  claws 
down,  —  you  mustn't  blame  me,"  —  Walden 
held  his  aching  sides,  —  "  for  —  for  smiling, 
Mr.  Hedgewick ! " 

"  It's  for  giving  me  the  tumble  I  blame 
you!"  said  Ase,  with  a  belligerent  shake  of 
his  big  black  curly  head. 

"That  was  your  own  fault,"  returned  Wal 
den.  "  You  had  no  right  to  pull  up  the  ladder, 
and  sit  on  it !  "  he  added,  with  another  burst. 


SHOWS   WHO   SLEPT   IN   THE   LOFT  71 

"  I  was  after  that ;  and  I  had  no  idea  !  Oh  ! 
oh ! "  he  struggled  with  his  emotions,  and 
added,  "If  it  had  suddenly  rained  cows  and 
calves,  I  couldn't  have  been  more  surprised ! " 

"You  always  was  a  giggling  dunce  in 
school,"  growled  the  sufferer,  who  had  just 
discovered  that  his  nose  was  bleeding. 

"  Yes,  —  I  don't  know  about  the  dunce  part," 
said  Walden  ;  "  but  I  had  to  laugh  sometimes, 
though  I  didn't  know  but  your  ruler  would 
come  whizzing  at  my  head  the  next  minute !  " 

"I'm  sorry  I  didn't  give  you  the  ruler 
more'n  I  did ! "  said  Hedgewick,  getting  up 
on  a  block  by  the  fire. 

It  was  impossible  for  Walden  to  continue 
to  stand  in  awe  of  a  man  he  had  seen  descend 
from  above  in  the  manner  described,  and  he 
was  provoked  to  retort,  — 

"  I  was  in  hopes  you  had  sense  enough  to 
be  sorry  you  gave  any  of  us  the  ruler  as  much 
as  you  did  !  " 

When  he  came  to  think  about  it,  he  was 
astonished  at  his  own  audacity  in  thus  "  talk 
ing  up"  to  the  man  who  had  once  played  the 


72  A   START   IN  LIFE 

tyrant  over  him.  But  now  his  slumbering 
indignation  at  the  old  outrage  blazed  up  again. 

"  Nobody  could  keep  that  school  without 
being  savage  with  the  big  boys,"  said  Ase, 
stung  into  making  some  feeble  defence  of  his 
conduct. 

"  You  were  savage  with  the  little  ones,  too," 
replied  Walden  ;  "  and  you  couldn't  keep  the 
school,  after  all !  Other  masters  had  managed 
to  keep  it  before  you,  with  not  half  your 
amount  of  muscle,  but  with  a  good  deal  more 
judgment  and  justice.  You  made  us  feel  that 
you  were  our  enemy  the  very  first  day  you 
brandished  your  ruler  in  that  schoolhouse. 
The  man  who  taught  there  before  you  made 
us  feel  that  he  was  our  friend ;  and,  though  he 
had  to  lick  some  before  the  winter  was  over, 
we  knew  he  was  in  the  right;  and  if  any 
big  fellows  had  tried  to  turn  him  out,  there 
were  enough  others  that  would  have  taken  his 
part.  That's  the  difference  in  masters.  Every 
body  was  glad  to  see  you  pitched  out." 

Walden  got  up,  and  stood  with  his  little 
bundle  under  his  arm  ;  wondering  whether 


SHOWS   WHO   SLEPT  IN   THE  LOFT  73 

he  should  go  and  ask  the  tavern-keeper  for 
the  blanket  or  bearskin  he  had  suggested, 
with  a  view  to  sleeping  on  the  cabin  floor. 
But,  all  at  once  reflecting  that  he  ought  not 
to  allow  himself  to  be  kept  out  of  bed  by  a 
bully,  he  stepped  to  the  ladder,  and  adjusted 
it  at  the  opening  in  the  loft. 

"Now  I've  had  my  say,  Mr.  Hedgewick," 
he  added ;  "  and  I'm  willing  to  let  the  subject 
rest  —  for  to-night,  anyway.  I'm  going  to 
sleep  where  the  landlord  told  me  to;  you 
can  do  as  you  please  about  it." 

So  saying,  he  scrambled  into  the  loft.  Ase 
cast  up  at  him  a  vicious  look,  and  started 
towards  the  ladder,  as  if  minded  to  pull  it 
from  under  him.  But  he  didn't.  He  was 
beginning  to  realize,  as  much  as  Walden  did, 
their  changed  relations ;  they  were  no  longer 
master  and  pupil.  He  sat  down  again  by  the 
fire  while  Walden  crept  into  the  bed  under 
the  low  roof. 

Then  the  men  who  were  to  occupy  the  other 
beds  came  in,  and  the  boy  heard  Hedgewick 
tell  them  that  he  guessed  he  would  go  out  and 
sleep  in  the  woods. 


74  A   STABT   IN   LIFE 

"  First,  Mr.  Brooke  comes,  and  I  am  turned 
out  of  his  bed  in  the  tavern ;  and  now  some 
body  else  is  put  into  my  old  bed  in  the  loft 
here.  I'm  just  kicked  about  as  if  I  was  of  no 
consequence,"  Ase  added  complainingly. 

What  he  really  did,  as  Waldeii  afterwards 
learned,  was  to  get  a  buffalo-skin  and  roll  him 
self  up  in  it  on  the  cabin  floor.  So  the  boy 
had  the  loft  to  himself.  He  could  feel  the 
wind  blowing  over  him  from  chinks  in  the 
gable,  and  see  stars  through  a  gap  in  the 
roof,  and  hear  the  brook  come  tumbling  down 
from  the  dam  near  by,  with  a  lonesome  sound 
in  the  November  night,  to  whose  soft  lullaby 
he  soon  fell  asleep. 


CHAPTER  XL 

ME.    A.   RANDOLPH  HEDGEWICK  FAILS  TO  SEE  THAT  ONE 
GOOD  TURN   AT  A  GRINDSTONE  DESERVES  ANOTHER. 

HE  was  awakened  early  the  next  morning 
by  voices  in  the  room  below ;  which  he  found 
empty,  dark,  and  cold,  with  the  fire  out, 
when  he  came  down  the  ladder  from  the  loft 
shortly  after.  He  hastened  forth,  feeling  that 
that  day  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  for 
him  there  in  the  woods. 

The  recollection  of  his  encounter  with 
Hedgewick  caused  him  some  uneasiness;  but 
he  could  not  feel  that  he  had  done  anything 
very  wrong,  nor  believe  that  Mr.  Brooke  was 
a  man  to  be  much  influenced  by  anything 
the  former  master  might  have  to  say  against 
him. 

"I'll  just  go  about  my  own  business,"  he 
said  to  himself,  "  and  never  trouble  him  unless 
he  troubles  me." 

75 


76  A   START  IN  LIFE 

He  walked  over  to  the  tavern,  and,  finding 
the  table  crowded  with  early  risers,  breakfast 
ing  by  the  mingled  firelight  and  daylight,  he 
walked  out  again  to  take  a  view  of  the  settle 
ment. 

The  morning  was  mild  and  hazy.  The 
smoke  of  smouldering  log-heaps  gave  a  bluish 
tint  and  a  pungent  odor  to  the  air.  In  the 
midst  of  stumpy  clearings  was  the  newly  built 
dam  across  the  stream,  with  its  skeleton  saw 
mill,  and  its  little  pond  reflecting  the  rough 
banks  and  the  reddening  sky  behind  the  forest- 
tops.  The  marks  of  civilization  were  of  the 
rudest  primitive  sort :  and  yet  Walden's  heart 
swelled  with  anticipations  of  the  life  which 
was  to  grow  up  there,  and  of  which  he  was  to 
be  a  part. 

Several  of  Gadbury's  boarders  were  men 
who  were  building  houses  for  themselves  in 
the  neighborhood  —  "  rolling  them  up,"  as  the 
phrase  was;  working  in  gangs,  and  assisting 
one  another  to  "  roll  up,"  by  means  of  inclined 
poles,  the  logs  which  were  to  form  the  walls  of 
the  future  house. 


HEDGEWICK   AT   THE   GRINDSTONE  77 

Then  there  were  the  men,  carpenters  and 
woodsmen,  employed  by  Mr.  Brooke.  Walden 
soon  made  acquaintance  with  these,  and  found 
enough  to  do. 

"  Here,  Walden  ! "  called  Mr.  Brooke  from 
the  store ;  "  come  and  pick  out  your  axe." 

The  boy  had  already  fixed  his  eye  on  the 
lightest  of  the  axes  which  had  come  in  the  load 
the  day  before.  He  chose  a  helve  to  match, 
among  several  which  had  been  shaped  by  back 
woodsmen  and  brought  in  to  be  exchanged  for 
goods  at  the  store. 

The  helve  was  soon  fitted  to  the  axe  and 
firmly  wedged.  All  this  time  Walden  had  had 
nothing  to  say  to  Hedgewick,  who  was  at  work 
placing  the  new  goods.  But  now  the  axe,  and 
another  which  Mr.  Brooke  called  his  own,  were 
to  be  sharpened. 

"Take  both  axes,  Ase,  you  and  Walden," 
said  Mr.  Brooke,  "  and  give  'em  a  good  grind- 
ing." 

Neither  Ase  nor  Walden  said  anything  as 
they  took  each  an  axe  and  went  over  to  the 
stone  at  the  tavern-door.  Ase  gave  it  a  turn 


78  A  START   IN  LIFE 

and  found  there  was  no  water  in  the  under- 
hanging  trough.  He  then  brought  out  an 
empty  pail,  which  he  dropped  at  Walden's 
feet,  saying  tersely,  — 

"  Fetch  some ! " 

Walden  hesitated  a  moment,  but  seemed  to 
conclude  it  would  be  becoming  in  him  to  obey. 

"  From  the  brook  ?  "  he  asked. 

"No;  from  the  spring." 

Ase  pointed  with  an  authoritative  look. 
The  spring  was  near  by,  with  a  bottomless 
barrel  set.  The  boy  soon  returned  from  it 
with  a  dripping  pail,  and  the  trough  was 
filled.  Then  Ase  said  sententiously,  — 

"Turn  !  "     And  Walden  turned. 

Ase  held  Mr.  Brooke's  axe  to  the  stone, 
bearing  on  harder  and  harder,  until  Walden, 
tugging  at  the  crank,  began  to  laugh. 

"  Always  snickering  !  "  exclaimed  Ase. 
"What  now?" 

"I  was  thinking  of  what  the  boy  said  last 
night — that  he'd  rather  go  a-fishing  all  day 
than  *  turn  grin'-stun  half  an  hour.'  I  wonder 
what  he  would  have  said  if  he  had  been 


HEDGEWICK   AT  THE  GRINDSTONE  79 

turning  for  you ! "  Walden  added  good- 
humoredly. 

"  Maybe  you  can  guess  what  he'd  say,  'fore 
we  get  through,"  muttered  the  grim  axe- 
grinder. 

It  was  very  evident  that  he  was  doing  all 
he  could  to  tire  the  boy  out.  But  Walden 
stuck  to  his  task  heroically,  and  took  pride  in 
keeping  the  stone  lightly  whirling  even  when 
the  tool  was  lifted.  He  thus  reminded  himself 
of  a  story  he  had  read  of  some  people  starving 
in  a  besieged  town,  who  with  gay  defiance  let 
some  plump  pigeons  fly  from  the  walls,  in  the 
face  of  the  enemy. 

"  Glad  you  like  turning  so  well,"  said  Ase, 
feeling  the  edge  for  the  last  time,  and  then 
reaching  to  lean  the  helve  against  the  side  of 
the  house.  "  Give  me  t'other  axe." 

"  Beg  pardon !  "  replied  Walden,  reaching 
for  the  axe,  but  holding  on  to  it.  "  I  like 
turning  well  enough,  when  it's  my  turn  to 
turn.  But  I've  turned  for  you ;  now  it's 
your  turn  to  turn  for  me.  One  good  turn 
deserves  another,  as  they  say." 


80  A   START   IN   LIFE 

"  Give  me  that  axe  !  "  Ase  demanded,  in  the 
good  old-style  schoolmaster  tones. 

"  I  prefer  to  grind  my  own  axe,"  said  Wai- 
den,  quietly,  still  keeping  out  of  reach,  with 
his  keen  eyes  fixed  on  Hedgewick.  "  Espe 
cially  after  seeing  the  way  you  have  ground 
Mr.  Brooke's." 

"  He  told  me  to  grind  the  axes,  with  you  to 
help,"  Ase  declared. 

"  No,  he  didn't ;  he  simply  told  us  to  take 
the  axes  and  give  'em  a  good  grinding." 

"  I'll  see  about  that !  "  muttered  Ase,  start 
ing  towards  the  store. 

"  So  will  I ! "  cried  Walden,  springing 
before  him. 

He  was  almost  sorry  that  he  had  made  a 
stand  for  his  independence,  since  it  made 
necessary  an  appeal  to  Mr.  Brooke,  that  very 
first  morning  in  the  new  settlement.  But  he 
concluded  that,  if  A.  Randolph  Hedgewick 
was  to  be  his  master  still,  he  might  as  well 
know  the  fact  at  once. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

MR.   BROOKE  SETTLES  ONE    DISPUTE,   AND  MB.   GADBURY 
IS  CHOSEN  UMPIRE  IN   ANOTHER  THAT  IT  LED  TO. 

HE  did  not  have  far  to  go,  for  Mr.  Brooke 
just  then  made  his  appearance  at  the  door. 
Walden  made  haste  to  get  in  his  question,  — 

"  I  suppose  you  will  trust  me  to  grind  my 
own  axe,  since  I  am  to  use  it  ?  " 

"Why— yes  — I  don't  know,"  said  Mr. 
Brooke,  doubtfully.  "  Can  you  ?  " 

"  I  should  hope  so ! "  Walden  replied,  confi 
dently.  "  I've  done  as  much  before  now. 
Anyway,"  he  added,  seeing  Ase  about  to  put 
in  his  remonstrance,  "  just  let  me  try ;  and 
then,  if  you  don't  say  it's  ground  as  well  as 
yours  is,  I'll  never  ask  to  grind  my  own  axe 
again." 

"  Well,  go  ahead !  "  said  Mr.  Brooke,  care 
lessly.  "  What  is  it,  Ase  ?  " 

"I  don't  want  to  turn  grin'-stun  for  that 
boy !  "  said  Ase. 

81 


82  A   START   IN   LIFE 

"  I  didn't  very  much  fancy  turning  for  him," 
spoke  up  Walden  ;  "  but  I  did  it." 

"  I  don't  see,  Ase,"  remarked  Mr.  Brooke, 
"  that  you  can  reasonably  object  to  returning 
the  favor." 

"  I  do  object,  decidedly !  "  said  Ase.  "  I 
didn't  hire  out  to  turn  grin'-stuns  for  upstart 
boys  like  him.  You  don't  know  him  as  well  as 
I  do." 

"  I  think  I  stand  a  pretty  good  chance  to  get 
acquainted  with  him,"  Mr.  Brooke  replied  with 
a  good-natured,  open  countenance  and  unruffled 
temper.  "  As  for  the  terms  of  your  agreement 
with  me,  I  believe  nothing  was  said  about 
grinding  axes,  though  I  understood  that  you 
were  to  do  anything  I  asked  of  you,  within  the 
bounds  of  reason." 

"  So  I  was,"  said  Ase,  glowering  obstinately ; 
"but"- 

"Well,  never  mind,"  interrupted  Mr. 
Brooke.  "  If  you  consider  it  beneath  your 
dignity  "  — 

"I  do !  "  exclaimed  Hedgewick,  with  in 
creasing  vehemence,  now  that  his  employer 


SETTLING   DISPUTES  83 

showed  signs  of  giving  in  to  him.  "  I  should 
consider  myself  degraded." 

"I'm  sorry  !  "  Mr.  Brooke  smiled  pleasantly, 
and  walked  over  towards  Walden,  who  was 
waiting,  axe  in  hand,  to  hear  his  decision. 
"  Go  into  the  store,  Ase,  and  take  care  of  your 
dignity.  It  won't  degrade  me,  I  guess,  to  turn 
grindstone,  even  for  a  boy.  Come,  Walden  !  " 

44 1  —  I  can't  let  you  do  that !  "  Ase  pro 
tested,  in  sudden  consternation.  Mr.  Brooke 
made  no  reply,  but  went  over  to  the  tavern- 
door  and  left  him  staring. 

"  You  hold  the  axe,  and  let  me  turn  !  "  Wal 
den  entreated. 

41  No,  no,  boy,"  said  Mr.  Brooke,  laying  hold 
of  the  crank.  44 1  want  to  see  if  you  are  really 
capable  of  grinding  an  axe.  Now,  don't  bear 
on  too  hard,"  he  added,  playfully.  44  If  you 
do,  I  may  throw  up  the  job." 

Walden  remonstrated  in  vain;  and  finally, 
in  great  shame  and  confusion,  put  his  axe  upon 
the  stone,  which  his  employer  stooped  to  turn. 
He  soon  regained  his  courage,  however,  and 
laid  the  edge  upon  the  watery,  revolving  rim, 


84  A  START   IN   LIFE 

and  drew  it  to  and  fro,  and  turned  it,  shifting 
the  helve  from  hand  to  hand,  as  his  father  had 
taught  him  to  do  when  he  was  only  fifteen 
years  old,  and  as  he  had  done  many  times  since. 

Then  again  he  begged  Mr.  Brooke  to  change 
places  with  him,  but  that  just  and  genial  gen 
tleman  smilingly  refused.  "  You're  doing 
pretty  well,"  he  said.  "  But  you  haven't  shown 
yet  that  you  can  finish  what  you  have  begun." 

"  Well,  then,  let  her  buzz  !  "  laughed  Walden, 
thinking  no  longer  of  anything  else  than  put 
ting  the  best  edge  possible,  and  the  smoothest 
polish,  on  a  very  good  axe. 

Mr.  Brooke  regarded  it  approvingly  when  it 
was  done,  but  said  nothing.  He  then  took  up 
the  other  axe  and  examined  that. 

"  I  don't  suppose  I  should  be  an  unprejudiced 
judge,"  he  remarked,  in  answer  to  a  question  of 
comparison  from  Walden,  as  they  walked  back 
to  the  store  together.  "  But  here  comes  Gad- 
bury;  he's  the  best  axe-grinder  I  know  of. 
See  here,  Gadbury  !  " 

Thus  accosted,  the  tavern-keeper,  who  was 
going  by,  turned  up  to  the  store. 


SETTLING   DISPUTES  85 

"  Who's  the  best  judge  of  axe-grinding  here 
abouts  ?  "  Mr.  Brooke  inquired. 

"Id'n'o'n'ti,"  replied  the  old  man,  modestly. 
"  But  Pve  seen  an  axe  ground  'fore  to-day  !  " 

"  Here  are  two  axes,"  Mr.  Brooke  continued. 
"  I  sha'n't  tell  you  who  ground  them,  but  I 
want  to  know  which  is  done  the  best." 

Walden's  heart  fluttered  with  expectation 
as  Gadbury  took  the  implements,  one  after  the 
other,  felt  their  edges,  looked  across  them  at 
the  light,  turned  his  quid,  and  drew  up  one 
side  of  his  face  in  a  pucker  of  amused  con 
ceit. 

"  You  want  to  know  my  'pinion  ?  "  he  asked. 
"  Wai,  it  mayn't  be  wuth  a  hooter ;  but,  if  '£«, 
that  'ere  axe "  —  handing  Walden's  to  Mr. 
Brooke  —  "is  a  decently  ground  axe." 

"  And  the  other  ?"  said  Mr.  Brooke. 

"  This  'ere  may  be  a  pretty  good  axe ;  I  like 
the  looks  on't  all,"  the  umpire  added,  with 
great  positiveness,  "  save  an*  excep'  the  grindin'. 
Good  stuff,  good  helve,  good  every  way.  But 
the  grindin's  uneven  an'  too  much  on  the  edge, 
as  you  can  see  with  your  own  eyes,  Mr. 


86  A   START   IN   LIFE 

Brooke,  though  you  may  have  ground  it 
yerself,  fuzino." 

"No,  I  didn't,"  said  Mr.  Brooke,  with  a  smile, 
while  Walden  had  to  put  his  face  in  a  corner 
to  conceal  his  delight. 

But  Mr.  A.  Randolph  Hedgewick,  farther 
back  in  the  store,  looked  glum. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE  GRINDERS  OF  THE   TWO  AXES   HAVE  A  BARE  OPPOR 
TUNITY  TO  TRY   THEIR   EDGE. 

LOGS  for  the  sawmill  had  been  cut  on  the 
spot,  and  Walden,  with  his  newly  ground  axe, 
was  set  to  clearing  up  some  heavy  tree-tops, 
which  were  to  be  reduced  to  piles  of  fire-wood, 
or  thrown  into  heaps  and  burned. 

The  preparations  for  sawing  the  first  log 
went  on  before  his  eyes,  and  were  as  interest 
ing  to  him  as  if  the  fate  of  an  empire  had  been 
at  stake.  The  new  enterprise  meant  framed 
houses,  with  boarded  sides  and  smooth  floors, 
and  other  cheap  conveniences,  unknown  in  a 
settlement  of  log  huts. 

Walden  was  frequently  called  to  help  about 
the  mill,  using  axe,  or  handspike,  or  nimble 
hands ;  and  he  was  one  of  a  small  number  of 
spectators  who  gathered  to  see  the  first  slab 
cut,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day. 
87 


88  A  START  IN  LIFE 

The  bright  new  saw  was  fixed  in  the  strong 
upright  frame.  The  log  was  on  the  truck,  or 
carriage,  in  its  place.  The  gate  was  hoisted, 
the  water  rushed  upon  the  wheel,  the  gearing 
moved,  the  flashing  blade  began  to  dance,  the 
log  was  carried  forward  against  the  relentless 
teeth.  Then,  at  the  whizzing  contact  of  wood 
and  steel,  and  the  sight  of  flying  sawdust  and 
the  blade  eating  its  way,  a  glad  hurrah  went 
up.  Everybody  congratulated  everybody  in 
general,  and  Mr.  Brooke  in  particular. 

The  machinery  was  quickly  stopped  for 
some  necessary  adjustment.  But  the  problem 
was  solved  ;  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  saw, 
once  more  set  in  motion,  took  off,  cleanly  and 
handsomely,  the  first  slab. 

"  Now  there'll  be  a  chance  for  the  big  bear 
I  see  in  the  woods  t'other  day,"  remarked 
Gadbury,  the  tavern-keeper,  as  the  log  was 
backing  up  for  a  second  cut.  "Did  I  ever 
tell  you  the  story  'bout  the  bear  that  tackled 
a  sawmill  onct,  an'  ruther  got  the  wust  on't?  " 

"Tell  it,  uncle,"  said  Mr.  Brooke,  in  the 
best  of  spirits,  as  well  he  might  be. 


THE  AXE-GRINDERS   TRY  THE   TOOLS       89 

"  Ye  see,"  the  old  man  resumed,  "  the  sawyer 
had  shet  down  an'  gone  off  to  bring  some 
grease  fer  his  gearin',  leavin'  his  pail  o'  dinner ; 
an',  when  he  come  back,  there  sot  a  big  bear 
on  the  truck,  pail  under  one  arm,  a-scoopin' 
out  the  biled  cabbage  an'  corn-beef  with  t'other 
paw,  like  he  was  boss  of  the  hull  consarn. 

"  Sawyer  wuz  consider'ble  discomfusticated, 
as  I  guess  e'ena'most  any  man  'u'd  be  under 
the  sarcumstances.  But  he  had  time  to  gether 
up  his  wits,  fer  the  beast's  attention  wuz  so 
tuck  up  with  his  victuals  't  he  never  see  no 
man.  He  wuz  a-clawin'  an'  a-swallerin',  when 
the  sawyer,  thinkin'  jest  to  drive  him  away, 
slipped  in  an'  set  the  mill  a-goin'. 

"  Bear  felt  suthin'  twitch  his  tail ;  turned, 
an'  see  the  saw  a-bobbin'  an'  a-grinnin'  at  him. 
Saw  snarled  an'  showed  its  teeth  ;  bear  snarled 
back,  and  showed  his'n.  Bear  put  out  his  pawf 
as  if  to  see  what  sort  of  a  critter  wuz  a-foolin' 
with  him ;  paw  got  bit.  Then  that  'ere  bear 
went  fer  that  'ere  saw.  Bear's  natur',  ye 
know,  's  to  hug.  He  hugged.  He  hugged 
that  'ere  saw,  an'  that  'ere  saw  sawed,  whilst 


90  A   STAKT   IN   LIFE 

the  sawyer  jest  laid  back  an'  kep'  dark  an 
watched  the  fight.  Bear  got  the  wust  on't; 
ripped  clean  in  tew,  slick  as  a  whistle  !  Sawyer 
said  he  didn't  haf  to  travel  off  fer  no  more 
grease  fer  his  gearin'  that  season  !  Did  I  ever 
/jell  it  ?  Id'nVn'ti ! " 

"  You  never  told  it  to  me,"  said  Mr.  Brooke. 
"  But  I've  heard  the  story  before." 

"  Wai,  ye  may  have,"  said  the  tavern-keeper, 
biting  a  plug  of  tobacco.  "  I  heerd  it  long 
ago's  when  I  wuz  a  young  man,  an'  carried  a 
musket  in  the  Revolution,  an'  fit  under  our 
gre't  and  good  commander,  Gin'ral  Jawge 
Wash'n'ton.  'Twuz  an  ol'  story  then,  fuzino." 

"  There  wa'n't  any  sawmills  so  long  ago," 
said  Ase,  who  sometimes  hazarded  rash  state 
ments  in  order  to  make  a  show  of  superior 
knowledge,  and  who  lost  no  opportunity  of 
discrediting  the  old  man's  word  since  he  had 
passed  adverse  judgment  on  his  axe-grinding. 
"Sawmills  wa'n't  invented." 

At  the  same  time,  having  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  spectators,  he  flourished  an 
axe  which  he  picked  up,  and,  stepping  to  a  log 


THE  AXE-GKINDERS  TRY  THE  TOOLS       91 

near  by,  struck  it  a  blow  that  exhibited,  as  he 
evidently  meant  it  should,  a  very  creditable 
amount  of  muscle. 

But  Gadbury  was  not  silenced. 

"  Sawmills  wa'n't  invented,  hey  ?  "  he  slowly 
repeated.  "Mabbe  they  wa'n't.  An'  mabbe 
bears  wa'n't  invented,  nuther.  But  I  kin'  o' 
run  of  a  notion  't  I  seen  both,  an'  some  other 
things,  too,  thirty  year,  't  least,  'fore  ever  your 
hair  begun  to  curl,  young  man ! " 

Thereupon  everybody  laughed  ;  Walden,  for 
reasons  of  his  own,  perhaps  a  little  more  glee 
fully  than  the  rest.  Ase  gave  him  a  glowering 
look,  and  once  more  struck,  with  a  prodigious 
display  of  force,  his  axe  into  the  butt  of  the 
log.  He  left  it  sticking,  and  was  rising  up 
to  answer  the  tavern-keeper,  when  Mr.  Brooke 
interposed. 

"Don't  waste  breath  in  argument  and 
strokes  that  do  more  harm  than  good.  Come, 
boys ! "  he  called,  starting  off  towards  the 
woods.  "There's  a  little  stick  up  here  I 
want  to  get  out  of  the  way.  Bring  your  axes." 

By  the  "  boys  "  he  meant  Ase  and  Walden ; 


92  A   START   IN  LIFE 

and  the  "  little  stick  "  mentioned  was  part  of 
a  gnarly  oak,  near  thirty  inches  in  diameter, 
that  was  to  be  divided  into  lengths  convenient 
for  being  hauled  to  a  log-heap  and  burned. 

"Now  Ase  will  have  a  chance  to  show  what 
he  can  do,"  said  Luke  Ball,  one  of  Mr.  Brooke's 
wood-choppers.  "  He's  always  bragging  't  he 
can  cut  more  wood  in  a  day  than  any  of  us, 
only  he  never  gits  the  time." 

Mr.  Brooke  had  heard  his  storekeeper  brag 
of  what  he  could  accomplish  with  an  axe, 
which,  however,  he  did  not  often  take  occa 
sion  to  wield,  except  for  a  few  showy  strokes. 
He  had  also  been  annoyed  by  the  ridicule  Ase 
habitually  cast  upon  whatever  Walden  set  out 
to  do. 

"  Make  the  first  cut  about  there,"  said  he, 
laying  a  twig  across  the  prostrate  trunk ;  "  and 
the  next,"  taking  a  few  paces  toward  the  top, 
"where  this  decayed  spot  is.  Then  we  can 
handle  it." 

At  sight  of  the  "  little  stick,"  Ase  felt  his 
ambition  to  swing  an  axe  rapidly  evaporate, 
and  suddenly  remembered  some  important 


THE   AXE-GRINDERS   TRY    THE   TOOLS        93 

matter  he  had  neglected  at  the  store  when  he 
ran  over  to  see  the  mill  start. 

"  I'll  look  out  for  that,"  said  Mr.  Brooke. 
"  Now,  boys,  there's  a  little  stint  for  you." 

The  stem  was  slightly  tapering,  and  the 
decayed  spot  appeared  to  offer  a  still  further 
advantage  to  the  chopper  who  should  take  the 
upper  cut.  Walden  had  his  eye  on  it,  but 
stopped  at  a  stump  to  whet  his  axe,  when  Ase 
walked  in  before  him. 

"  Oh,  Ase  !  "  cried  Luke  Ball,  from  a  hemlock 
trunk  near  by.  "  You  ain't  goin'  to  let  him 
butt  ye !  " 

For  one  chopper  to  butt  another  signified 
that  he  was  to  make  the  cut  nearest  the  thick 
end  of  a  stem  in  the  time  it  took  his  companion 
to  make  the  next  above,  where  the  diameter 
was  less. 

44  There  ain't  no  butting  about  it,"  replied 
Ase.  Schoolmaster  as  he  was,  or  had  been,  he 
sometimes  used  the  double  negative,  which 
form  of  speech  he  probably  thought  good 
enough  for  the  backwoods.  "There's  scarce 
any  difference  in  the  trunk,  when  you  get 


94  A   START  IN  LIFE 

a  few  feet  away  from  the  stump,  till  you  pass 
the  branches." 

"  Wai !  "  said  Tom  Keyes,  another  chopper, 
who  was  helping  Luke  divide  the  hemlock  logs 
by  means  of  a  cross-cut  saw,  "  I'd  give  the  boy 
the  advantage  of  the  difference,  if  the'  is  any  ; 
and  of  course  the'  is  a  little." 

"Til  bet  the  boy  can  butt  him"  said  Gad- 
bury,  who  had  sauntered  up  the  stumpy  slope 
after  the  choppers.  "  Come,  Brooke,  what'll 
ye  bet?" 

"Don't  bet  anything  on  me,"  spoke  up 
Walden.  "You'll  lose  if  you  do.  But  I'd 
just  as  soon  take  the  first  cut."  And  he 
walked  over  to  the  trunk,  where  he  sat  down 
beside  the  twig  Mr.  Brooke  had  laid  across  it, 
and  continued  sharpening  his  axe. 

After  some  hesitation,  Ase,  for  very  shame, 
left  the  spot  he  had  chosen,  although  he  had 
already  taken  a  chip  out  of  it,  and  started  to 
walk  along  on  the  trunk,  saying  that  he  didn't 
care  ;  he  wasn't  going  to  try  his  strength  with 
a  boy's  anyway. 

"Of  course  not !"  said  Walden.     "I   don't 


THE   AXE-GRINDERS   TRY  THE  TOOLS       95 

pretend  I  can  chop  with  a  man.  But  I  guess 
I  can  manage  to  gnaw  this  stick  off,  give  me 
time.  I'm  going  to  try  it,  and  I'm  going  to 
have  this  cut." 

So  Hedgewick  walked  back  to  where  he  had 
made  a  beginning,  and  struck  in  his  axe  again. 

"  I've  got  a  mighty  dull  axe !  "  he  said. 

"  Is  that  so  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Brooke,  surprised. 
"  It  has  been  used  very  little  since  you  ground 
it  the  other  day." 

Meanwhile  Gadbury  was  urging  him  to  bet. 
Mr.  Brooke  laughingly  put  him  off,  but  at  last 
said,  — 

"  Well,  if  you  will  be  so  foolish,  I'll  bet  you 
a  bushel  of  potatoes.  But  the  odds  are  all 
against  you  ;  don't  you  see  they  are  ?  " 

"  They  may  be,  fuzino,"  replied  the  tavern- 
keeper.  "  Ol'  man  Gadbury  don't  know  much, 
ye  know  ;  don't  even  know  when  sawmills  was 
invented  !  But  he'll  resk  a  bushel  o'  taters  on 
Walden's  buttin'  on  him.  Jes'  to  see  a  little 
fun  goin'  on,  and  incourage  the  boys." 

" I'm  sorry  about  those  taters"  Walden  said 
to  him,  with  a  smile,  as  he  stood  on  the  log, 
poising  his  axe. 


96  A   START   IN   LIFE 

"  You  put  in  !  "  returned  old  man  Gadbury, 
with  an  emphatic  nod.  "  I've  seen  you  swing 
an  axe,  an'  I've  seen  him  swing  an  axe,  an'  I 
ain't  afeard  o'  losin'  the  taters.  Not  if  you'll 
try.  Don't  ye  see,  he's  gittin'  the  start  ?  " 

"  I  haven't  lost  any  time  while  I  was  sharpen 
ing  my  axe,"  said  Walden,  and  he  drove  the 
bright  edge  into  the  brittle  bark. 

His  strokes  were  not  very  heavy,  and  he  did 
not  seem  to  be  hurried  in  the  least.  But  every 
blow  fell  precisely  on  the  spot  where  it  would 
do  the  most  good ;  and  somehow  his  axe  had  a 
way  of  settling  into  the  oak,  which  the  appar 
ent  strength  put  forth  did  not  lead  you  to 
expect. 

"  He's  a  born  chopper,"  remarked  the  tavern- 
keeper,  half  leaning,  half  sitting  on  a  neigh 
boring  stump.  "  Gives  his  axe  jes'  the  right 
slant,  an'  hits  where  he  aims  ter,  tu  a  hair, 
every  time.  Then,  don't  ye  see  ?  there's  a  kin' 
of  a  force  goes  into  the  eend  of  his  stroke,  stid 
o'  losin'  itself  in  the  air,  'fore  it  hits,  like  some 
folks's  strokes  du." 

And  he  cast  a  sarcastic  glance  at  Ase,  rub 
bing  at  the  same  time  his  husky  hands. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MB.  GADBUBY'S  NOVEL,  METHOD  OF  RAISING  POTATOES, 

AND  HOW   IT   SUCCEEDED. 

ASE  set  his  first  chips  flying  handsomely,  and 
they  were  thick  and  broad.  But,  on  getting 
deeper  into  the  trunk,  he  soon  betrayed  that 
his  skill  was  by  no  means  equal  to  his  strength. 
Much  of  the  force  of  his  strokes  seemed  to 
spend  itself  in  the  air,  as  the  critic  on  the 
stump  had  intimated  ;  and,  what  was  worse,  he 
could  seldom  strike  twice  in  the  same  place. 

The  slanting  sides  of  his  cut  were  constantly 
getting  haggled  by  false  strokes,  instead  of 
preserving  a  clean  and  polished  appearance, 
as  Walden's  did.  "E'ena'most  like  the  pages 
of  a  book,"  as  old  man  Gadbury  observed; 
"  where  the  minister  could  write  a  sarmon,  if 
he  was  so  disposed." 

Ase  lost  a  good  deal  of  time  in  trimming  off 
those  mangled  edges,  often  striking  still  out- 
97 


98  A   START   IN   LIFE 

side  of  them  in  the  attempt,  and  thus  involun 
tarily  broadening  his  cut.  Then  another  thing 
happened. 

The  decayed  spot  was  near  the  upper  side  of 
the  log,  and  to  his  inexperienced  eye  it  had  no 
doubt  indicated  easy  chopping  when  he  should 
get  into  it ;  perhaps  he  would  find  the  trunk 
hollow.  But  it  turned  out  quite  otherwise. 
There  had  once  been  a  limb  there ;  the  wood 
was  dead,  indeed,  but  hard  as  "  linkum  vity," 
as  Gadbury  pleasantly  remarked. 

"  He's  got  into  a  knot  older'n  he  is  ;  old's 
the  fust  sawmill  't  ever  was  invented,  fuzino  !  " 
chuckled  the  tavern-keeper,  again  rattling  his 
horny  hands.  "  See  here,  Brooke  !  will  ye  say 
tew  bushel?" 

"  Who  is  beating  ?  "  Mr.  Brooke  called  back 
from  the  mill. 

"  Id'n'o'n'ti !  But  I'll  ventur'  a  few  more 
taters,  jes'  to  see  the  fun  go  on." 

"You'll  ruin  yourself,  Mr.  Gadbury,"  Wai- 
den  laughingly  protested,  between  strokes. 
"You  and  your  boarders  will" — hack!  — 
"  have  to  go  without  potatoes  all  winter,  if 


m 


•fr- 


I 


*-irs*? 

•. 


NEW   METHOD  OF   RAISING   POTATOES       99 

you  risk  any  more  on  "  —  hack  !  —  "  my  chop 
ping."  Hack !  hack  !  and  out  tumbled  a  big 
chip. 

The  day  was  cool,  but  both  choppers  had 
thrown  off  their  coats  at  the  beginning  of  the 
contest.  Walden  now  flung  his  cap  down  on 
the  log  with  his  coat,  and  unbuttoned  his  vest. 
Ase  threw  off  both  hat  and  vest,  and  loosened 
his  shirt  at  the  throat. 

The  afternoon  sun  shone  upon  their  faces, 
and  their  shadows  chopped  behind  them,  on 
the  background  of  the  bare  hills.  Gadbury 
rested  on  the  stump,  critical,  turning  his  quid. 
Luke  Ball  and  Tom  Keyes  plied  their  cross-cut 
saw  on  the  hemlock  trunk  near  by.  Bluejays 
screamed  and  black  squirrels  leaped  in  the 
forest  tops.  The  sawmill  sang  below,  and  the 
brook  came  down  from  above,  falling  into  the 
little  pond. 

Walden  had  gauged  his  cut  so  as  to  bring 
the  angle  of  the  meeting  sides  very  near  the 
centre  of  the  log.  He  did  not  quite  clear  it 
out,  but  turned  to  start  the  corresponding  cut 
in  the  opposite  side. 


100  A  START   IN   LIFE 

Ase  turned  at  the  same  time  ;  but  he  had 
not  gone  quite  so  near  the  centre,  and  he  had 
left  a  much  wider  chip  still  to  be  taken  out ; 
or  perhaps  he  expected  to  cut  through  from 
the  other  side,  which  promised  easier  chop 
ping. 

"Why  don't  you  notch  out?"  Gadbury 
asked  him.  "  I  wouldn't  leave  sich  a  botch  as 
that ! " 

"  I  wouldn't,  neither,  if  'twa'n't  for  the  sun 
in  my  eyes,"  replied  Ase,  in  a  voice  which 
betrayed  his  laboring  breath. 

He  was  very  much  heated,  his  face  was 
flushed  and  sweaty,  the  drops  trickled  down 
his  brawny  neck. 

He  wiped  his  low  forehead,  spat  upon  his 
hands  (with  a  furtive  glance  at  something  very 
much  like  blisters  appearing  on  the  palms), 
and  resumed  his  task. 

Gadbury  took  up  three  thick  chips,  and, 
carrying  them  over  to  the  other  side  of  the 
trunk,  sat  down  on  them,  again  facing  the 
choppers. 

"  It's  an  easy  thing  to  see  white  men  work, 


NEW   METHOD   OF  RAISING tfG 

as  the  old  Injun  said,"  he  remarked,  cheerfully, 
once  more  biting  his  plug.  "  Though  it  dooes 
make  my  back  ache  to  see  you,  Ase !  Seems 
to  me  I  feel  the  j'ints  o'  my  fingers  achin' 
round  that  'ere  helve ;  an'  I'm  git'in'  awful 
hot  about  the  neck  an'  chist !  Plenty  o'  time, 
plenty  o'  time,  Ase !  What  makes  us  so 
troubled  in  sperit?  What  are  we  so  con- 
sarned  about  ?  Id'n'o'n'ti ! "  and  the  old  man 
chuckled. 

"  You'd  better  go  about  your  business ! " 
said  Ase. 

"  Why,  I  be  about  my  business  !  I'm  inakin' 
money  faster 'n  I  ever  did  afore  in  my  life  — 
hand  over  fist!"  said  Gadbury,  with  provoking 
good  humor.  " '  How  so  ? '  says  you.  '  Rais 
in'  taters,'  says  I." 

Walden  had  to  stop  and  laugh  ;  and  he  took 
that  occasion  to  whet  his  axe  again.  He  was 
well  aware  that  the  little  time  thus  spent 
would  be  fully  offset  by  the  steel's  keener 
edge  and  his  own  refreshed  strength.  Sharp 
ening  was  not  like  chopping. 

"  I'm  in  a  pretty  hard  place,"  he  said,  balanc- 


Sl?AKT   IN   LIFE 


ing  himself  on  the  log  again.  "  If  I  get  beat 
—  as  of  course  I  shall,  for  Ase  is  only  playing 
with  me  "  —  hack !  (think  of  the  easy  impu 
dence  of  his  calling  Mr.  A.  Randolph  Hedge- 
wick  Ase!  wouldn't  his  old  school-fellows 
have  laughed  ?)  "  He's  just  making  believe ; 
he'll  drop  the  log  from  under  me,  first  you 
know !  If  I  get  beat,"  he  went  on  —  hack  !  — 
"  I  lose  my  credit  as  a  woodsman.  If  I  beat 
him,  Mr.  Brooke  loses  "  —  hack  !  — "  his  pota 
toes.  And  Mr.  Brooke's  interest  is  my "  — 
hack! — "is  my  interest.  So  I  lose,  anyway." 

"Never  mind  about  Mr.  Brooke's  interest," 
said  a  voice  ;  and  the  shadow  of  his  employer, 
coming  up  behind,  fell  across  the  log.  "  Win 
for  Gadbury  if  you  can.  Ase  will  look  out 
for  me.  I'll  say  two  bushels,  Gadbury  I "  and 
Mr.  Brooke  walked  off  again. 

Fresh  courage  and  strength  seemed  to  enter 
into  the  youthful  chopper.  Sunburnt,  flushed, 
his  short,  fair  locks  tossed  over  his  brow,  his 
red  flannel  shirt-sleeves  tucked  up  from  his 
brown  arms ;  his  breath  drawn  in  through  open 
nostrils  and  exhaled  in  a  quick  "  hah !  "  with 


NEW  METHOD   OF   RAISING  POTATOES    108 

each  stroke ;  lithe,  athletic,  keen-eyed,  his 
features  clear  and  strong  ;  he  stood  on  the  log, 
above  the  cut  already  made,  and  with  the  other 
fast  growing  between  his  feet. 

Ase  was  doing  better  than  at  first;  his 
strength  held  out  well,  and  he  was  getting 
what  he  called  "the  hang  o'  the  axe."  He 
would  not  be  beaten  by  that  boy !  Hard  and 
fast  fell  his  strokes.  Meanwhile,  the  tone  of 
old  man  Gadbury's  remarks  changed  somewhat. 

It  was  plainly  to  be  seen  that,  as  he  after 
wards  confessed,  he  was  "  feelin'  shaky  'bout 
them  'ere  taters."  He  got  up  from  his  throne 
of  chips,  and  walked  from  one  part  of  the  log 
to  the  other,  and  squinted  across  the  cuts, 
making  silent  comparisons,  which  were  evi 
dently  not  favorable  to  his  side. 

"  Be  ye  gittin'  tuckered  ?  "  he  said  to  Wai- 
den.  "  Can't  ye  put  in  a  leetle  more  ginger  ?  " 

The  boy  knew  what  he  meant  by  "  ginger," 
and  quickened  his  strokes.  The  two  openings 
made  about  equal  progress  towards  the  centre 
of  the  log ;  but,  before  it  was  reached,  Hedge- 
wick's  drew  to  an  angle,  with  still  three  inches 


104  A  START  IN  LIFE 

of  solid  heart  of  oak  remaining  for  his  axe.  He 
would  have  been  hopelessly  beaten  if  he  had 
been  obliged  to  broaden  the  notch ;  but  there 
was  the  unfinished  one  on  the  other  side. 

"Now's  your  chance!"  Gadbury  cried,  ex 
citedly,  to  Walden.  "  I'll  give  ye  half  o'  them 
taters  I  Two  or  three  strokes  right  there ! 
Leetle  lower  down  !  It's  off !  it's  off  —  save 
an'  except  a  hangnail  't  the  bottom  !  " 

Walden's  part  of  the  log  wasn't  quite  so 
nearly  off  as  Gadbury  said.  But  Ase  was 
made  to  think  it  was.  He  had  turned  to  chop 
on  the  sunny  side.  The  level  light  was  in  his 
eyes  again.  He  plied  his  axe  furiously  until, 
almost  at  the  last  stroke,  it  went  wild,  glanced, 
flew  from  his  hands,  and  struck  the  stump 
where  Gadbury  had  been  sitting,  a  do^en  feet 
away. 

"  Lucky  I  wa'n't  settV  there  now !  "  was 
the  old  man's  first  exclamation.  His  second 
was,  as  the  log  began  to  twist  and  crack  under 
Walden's  final  blows,  "  We've  got  them  'ere 
taters,  boy ! " 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A  COON-HUNT  WITH  A  DOG  THAT  WAS  NOT  A  COON-DOG. 

MR.  BKOOKE  did  not  seem  to  be  much  dis 
pleased  when  he  heard  that  he  had  lost  his  bet. 
He  was  not  a  betting  man,  and  he  had  a  fine 
sense  of  right,  which  would  have  troubled  him 
if  he  had  been  conscious  of  taking  anything 
from  his  neighbor  without  rendering  a  fair 
return. 

Walden  did  not  brag  of  his  success,  which 
had  cost  his  employer  two  bushels  of  a  product 
which  commanded  a  good  price  in  that  new 
country.  Hedgewick  had  still  better  reasons 
for  silence  on  the  subject.  Mr.  Brooke  forbore 
making  any  comment,  but  said,  quietly,  — 

"  Take  a  two-bushel  bag,  Ase,  and  fill  it 
from  the  large  pile  of  potatoes  in  the  cellar. 
Then,  when  you  go  to  supper,  you  can  take  it 
over  to  Gadbury's  and  pay  our  debt." 

Hedge  wick's  soul  revolted  against  that  humil- 

105 


106  A   START   IN   LIFE 

iation.  "  Let  him  come  for  'em,"  he  growled, 
ungraciously.  But  Mr.  Brooke  said  that 
wouldn't  do. 

"  It's  a  debt  of  honor,  and  we  must  pay  it 
honorably,  young  man  !  " 

Gadbury  had  no  scruples  against  receiving 
it ;  he  stood  in  his  door  with  a  number  of  his 
boarders  (Walden  and  the  wood-choppers 
among  them),  and  watched  with  immense 
satisfaction  the  burly  Ase  bringing  over  the 
bag  on  his  back. 

"  It's  the  heaviest  two  bushel  o'  taters  ever 
lie  had  to  lug  !  "  he  remarked ;  while  Walden's 
unfortunate  risibilities  ("tickle-strings,"  the 
old  man  called  them)  were  so  shaken  that 
he  had  to  dodge  in  behind  the  door,  to  avoid 
giving  the  ex-schoolmaster  fresh  offence. 

Ase  did  not  for  a  long  while  hear  the  last 
of  the  affair.  Luke  Ball  and  Tom  Keyes  made 
frequent  allusions  in  his  presence  to  famous 
feats  of  wood-chopping ;  and  at  almost  every 
meal  somebody  would  urge  him  to  "  take  anoth 
er  tater  ;  "  adding,  perhaps,  "  They're  some  o' 
ihenCere  taters,  ye  know !  " 


A  COON-HUNT  107 

All  this,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  increased  the 
animosity  with  which  Hedge  wick  was  inclined 
to  regard  his  former  pupil.  Walden  himself 
did  not  willingly  do  anything  to  aggravate 
it.  But,  with  those  over-sensitive  "  tickle- 
strings  "  of  his,  he  couldn't  help  laughing  at 
the  jokes  which  Ase  did  not  find  laughable. 

The  sawmill  had  hardly  covered  its  own 
back  with  boarding  when  there  came  a  snow 
storm.  That  made  a  change  of  scene,  but  not 
of  work,  for  Walden.  He  was  in  the  woods 
the  most  of  the  time,  now  helping  with  his 
axe,  now  driving  the  team  for  the  men,  haul 
ing  logs  or  loads  of  wood,  and  clearing  the 
ground  for  crops. 

He  loved  this  outdoor  life,  with  all  its  hard 
work.  In  winter,  too,  no  less  than  in  summer, 
the  forest  had  its  charms  for  him.  When  the 
bare  boughs  revealed  their  wonderful  tracery 
against  the  sky,  or  sparkled  with  glittering 
frost-work ;  when  the  snapping  ice  rattled  from 
limbs  and  twigs  at  the  touch  of  the  morning 
sun,  and  the  crows  cawed  high  overhead ;  when 
the  partridge  skulked  under  low  branches  of 


108  A  START  IN   LIFE 

fir,  drooping  with  their  weight  of  snow,  by 
the  brookside,  and  the  brook  sang  its  cheery 
song  between  icy  banks;  when  the  rabbit 
hopped  away  before  him,  dotting  the  earth's 
white  mantle  with  its  tracks  ;  at  all  such  sights 
and  sounds,  a  sense  of  wildness  and  beauty 
stirred  within  him,  and  he  was  happy  without 
knowing  why. 

In  the  winter  evenings  he  waited  on  cus 
tomers  in  the  store,  when  his  services  were 
needed.  But  he  had  much  time  to  himself, 
and  now  the  books  which  he  had  brought 
from  home  proved  useful.  He  had  never 
forgotten  what  Mr.  Brooke,  in  their  first 
interview,  said  to  him  about  arithmetic;  and 
he  devoted  many  hours,  and  many  sheets  01 
birch  bark  (which  served  instead  of  slate  or 
paper),  to  mastering  what  he  had  neglected  at 
school. 

He  would  have  been  glad  of  Mr.  A.  Ran 
dolph  Hedgewick's  assistance  about  certain 
hard  sums,  but  would  not  ask  for  it;  and  it 
was  perhaps  all  the  better  for  him  that  he 
worked  them  out  unaided.  He  did  not  know 


A  COON-HUNT  109 

how  soon  he  had  passed  on  where  his  former 
teacher  would  have  found  it  impossible  to 
follow.  For  that  gentleman  was  not  the 
mathematical  prodigy  he  managed  to  appear 
to  pupils  a  little  more  ignorant  than  himself. 

Mr.  Brooke  had  engaged  the  boy  to  do  what 
ever  work  was  required  of  him ;  and  had  con 
cluded  that  he  could  afford  to  give  him,  besides 
his  living,  three  dollars  —  a  week,  do  you 
think  ?  No ;  three  dollars  a  month.  Walden 
thought  this  liberal,  and,  for  the  times,  it  was. 
But  how  would  it  strike  lads  of  his  age  and 
spirit  and  muscle,  making  a  start  in  life  to-day  ? 

Walden  did  not  get  along  very  well  with 
Ase  in  the  store ;  and  he  had  a  particularly 
hard  time  with  him  when,  in  January,  Mr. 
Brooke  was  away.  Hedgewick  had  been  left 
in  charge ;  and  Walden,  in  his  subordinate 
position,  endured  his  domineering  and  abuse 
as  best  he  could. 

Mr.  Brooke  returned  from  the  East  with  a 
sleigh-load  of  goods ;  and  in  February  Ase  was 
sent  for  another  load,  to  Wai  den's  great  relief. 
The  boy  was  now  employed  much  of  the  time 


110  A   START   IN   LIFE 

in  the  store,  and  he  was  rapidly  learning  the 
details  of  the  business.  Those  were  happy 
days  when  he  had  Mr.  Brooke  for  a  boss,  in 
stead  of  Ase. 

He  was  in  the  woods  one  day  in  spring,  when 
he  saw  a  strange-looking  animal  running  up  a 
tall  trunk  near  the  edge  of  the  clearing. 

"  A  wild-cat !  "  was  his  first  thought.  But 
then  he  reflected  that  no  creature  of  the  cat 
tribe,  that  he  ever  heard  of,  had  a  bushy  tail 
tipped  and  ringed  with  black. 

"A  coon!"  was  his  second  thought;  and 
he  felt  sure  this  time  that  he  couldn't  be  mis 
taken. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  was  the  first  rac 
coon  our  boy  of  the  backwoods  had  ever  seen 
alive.  He  had  often  enough  at  home  witnessed 
the  depredations  this  nocturnal  visitor  com 
mitted  in  the  cornfields ;  but  he  had  never 
hunted  it,  and  it  did  not  often  show  itself  by 
day. 

While  he  stood  watching  it  from  below,  it 
glided  over  a  lofty  limb  and  disappeared  in  the 
crotch. 


A  COON-HUNT  111 

"It  has  a  hole  there,"  he  said  to  himself; 
and  it  occurred  to  him  that  its  skin  would 
make  a  very  good  cap. 

He  kept  his  own  counsel,  but  that  evening 
told  his  good  friend  the  tavern-keeper  what 
he  had  seen.  Since  Walden  had  won  for  him 
"them  'ere  taters,"  and  refused  to  accept  any 
part  of  them  for  his  share,  Gadbury  had  shown 
him  many  favors. 

"  Keep  dark,"  said  he,  "  V  we'll  have  a  nice 
little  coon-hunt  of  our  own  Sa'day  art'noon. 
He'll  stay  where  he  is,  fer  that's  his  hum." 

"  You  have  a  gun,"  replied  Walden,  who 
remembered  seeing  one  behind  the  chimney  in 
the  room  Mr.  Brooke  occupied  at  the  tavern. 

"  I've  got  a  gun."  The  old  man's  eyes  grew 
hazy  with  reminiscence.  "  My  Revolutionary 
musket.  The  same  't  I  carried  to  the  war, 
when  I  fit  under  our  gre't  and  good  command 
er,  Gin'ral  Jawge  Wash'n'ton.  But  'tain't  o' 
much  account  fer  huntin'.  Though  I  s'pose  - 
mind  !  I  don't  say  I  know,  on'y  s'pose  —  't  that 
'ere  gun  killed  a  redcoat  onct.  Fuzino." 

Walden  thought  he  would   some   time  ask 


112  A  START  IN  LIFE 

him  for  the  story ;  but  just  now  he  was  more 
interested  in  a  coat  that  wasn't  red. 

"I  can  chop  down  the  tree  myself,"  he 
said. 

"  So  ye  can  !  But  how  ye'll  ketch  the  coon  ? 
Tell  ye  what  we'll  du.  Git  Warrett  to  come 
over  'ith  his  yaller  dog  an'  his  shotgun.  An' 
the  coon-skin  shall  be  your'n,  fer  he  owes  me  a 
good  turn  fer  grindin'  his  axe,  an'  I  owe  you 
one  fer  them  'ere  "  — 

"  Don't  mention  the  taters  !  "  laughed  Wai- 
den. 

He  got  Mr.  Brooke's  permission  to  cut  the 
tree ;  and,  at  Gadbury's  invitation,  Warrett 
came  on  Saturday  afternoon,  bringing  his  axe 
and  his  gun,  and  accompanied  by  his  son  Sam 
and  his  "  yaller  dog."  The  son  Sam  was  the 
same  boy  whom  Walden  had  seen  turning  the 
grindstone  for  the  old  man,  on  the  evening  of 
his  arrival  in  the  new  settlement. 

The  "yaller  dog  "  was  not  a  coon-dog,  and  he 
could  not  be  got  to  show  much  interest  in 
anything  supposed  to  be  up  the  tree  Walden 
pointed  out. 


A  COON-HUNT  113 

"Wait  till  he  sets  eyes  on  him!  "said  the 
elder  Warrett.  "  Then  you'll  see  music." 

"He  ain't  good  on  a  scent,  but  there's  a 
power  o'  fight  in  him ! "  bragged  young 
Sam. 

The  axes  set  to  work  on  each  side  of  the 
trunk,  Walden  taking  the  upper,  and  Warrett 
the  under  cut,  in  such  a  way  as  to  lay  the  top 
over  into  the  clearing.  It  was  an  elm  of  good 
size  ;  but  it  was  not  long  before  it  began  to 
sway  and  rustle,  and,  at  a  finishing  stroke  from 
Warrett's  axe,  went  crashing  down. 

"  Now  for  the  varmint !  "  said  Gadbury,  as 
all  went  rushing  towards  the  still  quivering 
top. 

The  dog  felt  the  excitement,  and  went  caper 
ing  among  the  branches ;  when  shown  a  hole 
in  the  crotch,  where  Walden  had  seen  the  coon 
disappear,  he  bristled  and  pawed  and  gnawed 
and  barked  furiously.  He  was  left  to  guard 
the  entrance  while  Warrett  stood  by  with  his 
gun,  and  Walden  cut  holes,  one  after  another, 
in  the  hollow  limb. 

At  last  a  stick  which  the  old  man  thrust  in 


114  A   START   IN  LIFE 

discovered  the  tenant's  lodging ;  and,  after  a 
few  vigorous  punches,  the  animal  appeared 
through  one  of  the  holes  Walden  had  cut.  It 
was  about  one-third  the  size  of  the  dog,  into 
whose  very  face  it  put  out  its  nose. 

"  Let  Tory  shake  him  !  "  yelled  little  War- 
re  tt,  dancing  "  like  a  wild  Injun,"  as  old  man 
Gadbury  remarked  afterwards. 

There  was  some  shaking  done ;  but  it  struck 
Walden  that  it  was  in  an  unusual  manner. 
The  dog  did  not  seize  the  game,  but  the  game 
seized  the  dog.  He  pulled  it  out  of  the  hole 
with  his  nose  fastened  in  the  raccoon's  teeth. 
The  dog  jerked  and  backed  off;  the  raccoon 
hung  on  with  savage  persistence.  The  "  power 
o'  fight"  in  the  cur  remained  problematical; 
but  his  power  of  yelping  was  apparent.  He 
filled  the  woods  with  his  cries  of  terror  and 
pain. 

"  The  critter  might  'a'  hild  on  till  doomsday," 
said  Gadbury,  telling  the  story  in  the  evening, 
"  if  Walden  hadn't  'a'  run  in  an'  gin  it  a  coody- 
grass  with  his  axe."  He  meant  coup  de  grace  ; 
and,  when  asked  to  explain  the  term,  said  it  was 


A  COON-HUNT  115 

one  he  learned  in  the  army  of  the  Revolution, 
when  he  "  carried  a  musket  and  fit  under  that 
gre't  an'  good  commander,  Gin'ral  Jawge 
Wash'n'ton." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

A  TEUE     FAMILY    HISTORY  OF   A  KITTEN,   A  PUPPY,   AND 
A  YOUNG  RACCOON. 

THE  raccoon  despatched,  Tory  got  Ms  nose 
free,  and,  turning  tail,  ran  for  home  faster  than 
he  had  ever  run  before  in  his  life;  uttering 
short  yelps  till  he  was  out  of  sight. 

"Why  didn't  ye  let'em  have  the  fight  out?" 
said  young  Sam,  in  amusing  bewilderment. 

"  There  wasn't  any  fight,"  Walden  replied, 
convulsed  with  mirth. 

"But  the'  would  'a'  been,"  the  elder  Warrett 
declared,  "  if  ye'd  on'y  waited  fer  Tory  to  git 
mad ! " 

"  I  thought  it  was  about  time  for  him  to  get 
mad,  if  he  was  ever  going  to,"  said  Walden. 
"  I  think  I  should  have  been,  if  a  coon  had  had 
me  by  the  nose  !  " 

He  sobered  again  when  Gadbury,  examining 
the  carcass,  said,  oracularly,  "  The  varmint's 
116 


m 


'V      B 


A  TRUE   FAMILY   HISTORY  117 

got  young  uns  in  that  'ere  limb.  'Twon't  do 
to  let  them  grow  up  to  make  mischief  in  our 
new  cornfields." 

"  Nor  leave  'em  to  starve,"  said  Walden. 

With  a  few  strokes  of  his  axe  he  enlarged 
the  opening  through  which  the  mother-coon 
had  been  driven,  thrust  in  his  arm,  and  took 
out,  one  after  another,  five  young  ones  that 
had  not  yet  got  their  eyes  open.  They  were 
passed  around  and  regarded  with  a  great  deal 
of  curiosity.  Old  man  Gadbury  was  in  favor 
of  thumping  their  heads  on  the  log  at  once. 

But  Walden  thought  he  would  like  to  have  a 
raccoon  for  a  pet ;  and  young  Sam  had  a  still 
more  original  scheme  for  making  them  useful. 

"  Give  'em  to  me,"  said  he,  "  an'  I'll  give  ye 
five  puppies  not  a  mite  older'n  they  be." 

Walden  did  not  readily  perceive  the  value  to 
him  of  five  blind  puppies;  nor  could  he  see 
what  Sam  wanted  of  so  many  helpless  "  coon- 
kittens,"  as  the  tavern-keeper  called  them. 

"I'll  take  away  the  pups  and  give  their 
mother  the  coons  to  nuss  an'  bring  up.  Then 
soon's  they're  big  enough  I'll  show  one  to 


118  A  START  IN   LIFE 

Tory,  an*  make  him  fight  an'  shake  it.  Then 
when  they're  a  little  bigger  I'll  give  him 
another.  Fin'ly  I'll  turn  him  loose  in  a  pen 
with  the  last  one  when  it's  got  full-grown ;  for 
I'm  bound  to  edecate  him  into  a  coon-dog,  if  I 
live ! " 

Walden  laughed.  "  There's  a  cat  in  the 
store  with  kittens,"  he  said.  "I  might  give 
her  one  coon,  and  one  of  your  puppies,  and  see 
if  she'll  bring  them  up.  You  may  have  the 
other  four  coons  for  educational  purposes ;  and 
keep  the  rest  of  the  puppies." 

Taking  the  old  raccoon  for  her  skin,  and  one 
of  her  young  for  a  pet,  he  returned  trium 
phantly  to  the  store,  accompanied  by  the  old 
man  carrying  the  axe.  Mr.  Brooke  congratu 
lated  him  on  his  good  luck,  and  took  a  lively 
interest  in  the  experiment  to  be  tried  with  the 
cat. 

One  of  her  four  kittens  was  removed  and 
the  young  "  varmint "  carefully  put  in  its 
place.  She  did  not  seem  to  notice  the  fraud, 
but  received  and  nursed  the  changeling  as  if 
it  had  been  her  own.  Then,  when  Sam  War- 


A  TRUE  FAMILY  HISTORY  119 

rett,  who  had  run  home  with  his  pockets  full 
of  coons,  reappeared  with  a  plump  brown 
puppy  in  his  hands,  the  further  deception  was 
practised  of  substituting  it  for  another  of  her 
young. 

She  was  kind  to  that  also;  although  its 
greater  size  might  have  betrayed,  even  to  a 
cat's  comprehension,  one  would  think,  the  fact 
that  her  hospitality  was  being  imposed  upon. 
The  coon  was  about  as  large  as  one  of  the 
kittens,  which  it  sufficiently  resembled  in 
shape  and  color.  But  the  puppy  was  of  a 
more  decided  brown,  and  nearly  twice  as 
big. 

The  next  day  another  of  her  own  young  was 
abducted,  leaving  the  cat  with  progeny  belong 
ing  to  three  distinct  families  of  carnivorous 
animals — the  feline,  the  canine,  and  the  ur 
sine  ;  the  kitten,  the  puppy,  and  the  little 
plantigrade  stranger  from  the  woods.  She  at 
first  treated  them  all  with  about  equal  con 
sideration  ;  but  soon  her  entire  maternal  affec 
tion  seemed  to  centre  in  the  raccoon,  perhaps 
because  it  was  the  puniest  of  the  three. 


120  A  START  IN  LIFE 

It  did  not  get  its  eyes  open,  and  it  did  not 
seem  to  grow.  The  kitten  became  playful,  and 
the  puppy  thrived ;  but  the  other  changeling 
did  not  change,  except  to  become  even  slighter 
and  feebler  than  when  it  was  taken  from  the 
hollow  limb.  For  its  sake  the  foster-mother 
snubbed  the  puppy,  and  neglected  her  own 
child.  She  would  cuff  their  ears,  and  snarl  at 
them  when  they  appeared  to  be  taking  too 
large  a  share  of  the  nutriment  she  was  able  to 
supply ;  and  one  day,  at  the  end  of  about  a 
month,  she  forsook  them  altogether,  carrying 
off  her  favorite  in  her  mouth. 

She  took  it  to  a  new  bed  she  found  in  anoth 
er  corner  of  the  store ;  and,  when  Walden 
placed  the  kitten  and  puppy  with  her  there, 
she  abandoned  them  again,  taking  the  poor 
little  pet  tenderly  in  her  teeth,  by  the  skin  of 
its  neck,  and  hopping  back  with  it  into  the 
basket,  which  had  once  been  the  happy  home 
of  the  now  divided  family. 

Ever  after  that,  whenever  the  forsaken  ones 
were  brought  to  her,  she  would  immediately 
get  up  from  her  comfortable  couch,  and,  leav- 


A  TRUE   FAMILY  HISTORY  121 

ing  it  to  them,  trot  off  with  her  ridiculous 
charge. 

Walden  watched  these  migrations  with  much 
interest ;  and  at  length,  to  see  what  the  cat 
would  do,  left  her  kitten  in  one  bed  while  he 
replaced  the  puppy  in  the  other.  She  was  on 
her  four  feet  with  the  coon  in  her  mouth  in  a 
moment ;  but  when,  on  going  back  to  the  bas 
ket,  she  found  the  kitten  there,  she  went  sadly 
away  and  did  not  return  to  either  bed  again. 

From  that  time  she  might  often  be  seen 
lugging  her  darling  about  and  concealing  it  in 
out-of-the-way  places,  to  her  own  perfect  satis 
faction  and  the  amusement  of  the  spectators ; 
until  one  day  a  little  tragedy  happened,  which 
involved  more  actors  than  the  cat  and  her 
young  raccoon. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

MB.  HEDGEWICK  THINKS  IT  TIME  FOB  HIM  TO  QUIT,  AND 
IS  8UBPBISED  TO  FIND  HIS  EMPLOYES  OF  THE  SAME 
OPINION. 

ME.  BROOKE  came  into  the  store  after  din 
ner,  and  found  Walden  red-eyed  and  choking 
with  anger.  When  he  asked  what  the  trouble 
was,  the  boy  held  out  the  limp  and  lifeless 
body  of  the  cat's  favorite. 

" Dead? "  said  Mr.  Brooke.  "  How  did  that 
happen  ?  " 

"Ask  him!"  Walden  replied,  giving  Ase 
Hedgewick  a  wrathful  look. 

It  was  not  in  Hedgewick's  nature  to  like 
anything  in  which  Walden  took  delight;  and 
he  had  come  to  hate  the  young  raccoon.  He 
had  been  laughing  grimly  at  the  calamity  that 
had  cut  short  its  miserable  little  existence ;  but 
now,  as  Mr.  Brooke  turned  upon  him  with  a 
stern  question,  he  thought  it  time  to  be  serious. 

122 


TIME  FOR   HIM  TO  QUIT  128 

"I  don't  know  anything  about  it,"  he  re 
plied. 

"  He  does !  "  cried  Walden.  "I  saw  him  hit 
it  with  his  foot." 

"  If  I  did,  it  was  by  accident,"  said  Ase. 
"It's  been  hard,  half  the  time,  to  keep  from 
stepping  on  it  ever  since  the  cat  has  left  it 
lying  around." 

"  It  was  no  accident,"  Walden  rejoined. 
"  It  was  between  those  barrels,  when  he  came 
along  and  gave  it  a  kick.  I  saw  him  ;  and  I'm 
as  sure  he  killed  it  as  I  am  that  he  is  forever 
doing  mean  things,  which  he  thinks  will  spite 
me." 

"  Well,  go  to  your  work,  Walden,"  said  Mr. 
Brooke.  "It  can't  be  helped  now." 

Walden  looked  down  at  the  cat  purring  and 
rubbing  his  feet,  and  mewing  wishfully  for 
the  baby  raccoon  in  his  hand.  He  gave  it  to 
her,  and  she  went  off  with  it  in  her  mouth,  to 
fondle  it  for  the  last  time,  while  he  walked  dis 
contentedly  out  of  the  store. 

Then  Mr.  Brooke  said  to  Ase,  "  What  did 
you  want  to  kill  that  poor  little  thing  for  ?  " 


124  A  STABT  IN   LIFE 

Hedge  wick  stoutly  denied  the  charge.  Mr. 
Brooke  frowned. 

"  I've  watched  you  both  carefully  ever  since 
that  morning  when  you  and  Walden  were  at  the 
grindstone  together.  I  saw  and  heard  a  great 
deal  more  than  either  of  you  supposed ;  and  I've 
noticed  your  treatment  of  him  since.  You  have 
been  constantly  imposing  on  him,  and  trying  to 
prejudice  me  against  him ;  while  he  has  sel 
dom  made  any  complaints  against  you,  but  has 
borne  your  insults  as  patiently  as  I  should  ex 
pect  a  boy  of  his  spirit  to  do.  He  has  so  often 
been  in  the  right,  while  you  have  been  in  the 
wrong,  that  I  conclude  he  is  in  the  right  now." 

"Then,  you  think  I  lie  about  that  coon !  "  ex 
claimed  Ase,  looking  as  if  he  could,  as  easily  as 
not,  make  up  his  mind  to  throttle  his  employer. 

Mr.  Brooke  answered  firmly,  "  I  believe  Wal 
den." 

"  Then,"  said  Ase,  "  I  guess  it's  about  time 
for  me  to  quit." 

"  As  you  please,"  said  Mr.  Brooke.  "  How 
much  do  I  owe  you  ?  "  turning  to  his  desk. 

Walden  was  greatly  surprised,  on  coming  in 


TIME   FOR   HIM   TO   QUIT  125 

from  the  woods  late  in  the  afternoon,  to  learn 
what  had  occurred. 

"  I  hope  you  don't  think  it  was  my  fault,"  he 
said  to  Mr.  Brooke. 

"No,  it  was  his  own  fault,"  Mr.  Brooke  re 
plied.  "I'm  sorry  to  lose  him,  for  work  is 
plenty  and  help  is  scarce,  and  he  was  a  good 
hand  in  the  store.  But  I  think  I  know  of 
somebody  who  can  take  his  place." 

"Who?"  Walden  inquired. 

"A  young  chap  about  your  size,"  said  Mr. 
Brooke. 

"  His  place  —  in  the  store  ?  "  said  the  aston 
ished  Walden.  "  I  don't  believe  I'm  capable  I " 

"  If  you  are  not  now,  you  soon  will  be." 

Mr.  Brooke  had  raised  his  wages  to  four  dol 
lars  a  month  since  the  days  had  lengthened  and 
the  spring  work  set  in ;  he  now  advanced  them 
to  five,  with  the  promise  of  a  still  further  aug 
mentation,  "  if  it  should  turn  out  that  he  liked 
the  store,  and  the  store  liked  him." 

Tears  shone  in  the  boy's  eyes.  To  have  his 
pay  increased,  to  be  rid  of  his  one  enemy,  and, 
more  than  all  else,  to  receive  such  proof  of  his 


126  A   START   IN   LIFE 

employer's  confidence  and  good-will,  seemed 
almost  too  much  for  one  day. 

His  preference  was  for  active  outdoor  life 
and  the  freedom  of  the  woods.  But  he  liked 
the  store  well  enough  when  Ase  was  out  of  it. 
The  work  there  was  anything  but  confining, 
and  there  was  no  lack  of  exercise  for  strong 
arms  and  a  sturdy  back. 

Hedgewick,  when  he  threw  up  his  situation, 
had  not  the  least  idea  that  his  services  could  be 
dispensed  with  ;  and  Mr.  Brooke's  prompt  offer 
to  pay  him  off  rather  stunned  him  for  a  mo 
ment.  He  pocketed  his  pay,  however,  and 
went  out  to  cool  his  anger,  lingering  in  sight 
about  the  tavern,  and  still  confidently  expect 
ing  overtures  for  his  return.  He  was  wonder 
fully  cheerful,  whistling  or  laughing  loud 
enough  to  be  heard  in  the  store,  and  appearing 
to  enjoy  his  leisure  immensely. 

As  Mr.  Brooke  did  not  hasten  to  call  him 
back,  he  grew  uneasy  towards  night,  and  took 
some  pains  to  attract  that  gentleman's  attention 
when  they  met  at  supper.  The  coolly  civil 
look  he  received  did  not  raise  his  spirits  re- 


TIME   FOR   HIM  TO  QUIT  127 

markably ;  and  his  talk  at  table,  at  first  bois 
terously  jolly,  became  fitful  and  forced.  He 
was  afraid  Mr.  Brooke  did  not  see  the  immense 
importance  to  his  business  of  the  man  he  had 
lost. 

He  even  found  it  necessary  to  remind  him 
of  his  existence ;  and  for  that  purpose  accosted 
him  the  next  morning  at  the  store,  in  <an  ex 
ceedingly  mild  and  conciliatory  tone. 

"I  d'n'know's  I'd  ought  to've  left  you  so 
sudden,  when  you've  so  much  outside  business; 
and,  if  'twill  be  any  'commodation,  1*11  come  in 
and  "  —  he  hesitated,  chilled  by  the  coolness  of 
his  reception. 

"Thank  you,  Ase,"  Mr.  Brooke  replied 
cheerfully.  "  But  I  think  I  can  get  along." 

The  discomfited  Hedgewick  saw  there  was 
no  other  way  for  him  but  to  humble  himself. 

"  I  was  hasty,  —  I'd  like  to  take  back  what 
I  said  yesterday,"  he  resumed,  with  ludicrous 
embarrassment,  looking  foolish  and  scratching 
his  ear.  "  I'm  willing  to  keep  on  with  you,  if 
you've  no  objection." 

"  If  you  mean  here  in  the  store,"  said  Mr. 


128  A  START  IN  LIFE 

Brooke,  "you  are  too  late.  Your  place  is 
filled." 

"  I'm  turned  out  for  him  ?  "  said  Ase,  with  a 
black  look  at  Walden,  in  the  back  part  of  the 
store. 

"  Oh,  no,  Ase.  You  turned  yourself  out. 
I've  plenty  of  work  yet,  however,  if  you  care 
to  do  it." 

"  What  work  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"You  know  what  the  work  is  outside,"  said 
Mr.  Brooke ;  "  logging,  teaming,  clearing,  help 
ing  about  the  mill." 

"  Work  you  know  I  won't  do  —  no,  sir !  not 
for  you  ! "  Ase  exclaimed.  "  I'll  have  nothing 
more  to  do  with  such  a  man.  And  as  for  that 
puppy  " 

He  did  not  allude  to  the  dead  raccoon's  fos 
ter-brother,  but  shook  his  belligerent  fist  at 
Walden,  and  turned  away  muttering. 

He  remained  a  few  days  at  the  tavern,  then 
went  to  build  a  cabin  of  his  own  on  a  piece  of 
land  he  had  taken  up  in  another  part  of  the  set 
tlement. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

A.  BEE-HUNT,  WHICH   SHOWS  THAT    THEY  DON'T  ALWAYS 
GET  THE  MOST  HONEY  WHO  RECEIVE  THE  MOST  STINGS. 

THEN,  one  fine  summer  afternoon,  a  pleasant 
surprise  for  Walden.  As  he  was  going  from 
the  store  over  to  the  mill,  —  where  Mr.  Brooke 
was  putting  in  a  "  run  of  stone  "  for  grinding 
the  settlers'  grain  with  the  same  water- 
power  that  sawed  their  logs,  —  the  boy  noticed 
another  boy  approaching  on  foot,  carrying 
a  bundle,  along  the  road  that  led  from  the 
woods. 

It  was  a  boy  new  to  the  settlement ;  yet  his 
face,  as  he  drew  near,  grinning  under  his  straw 
hat-brim,  grew  astonishingly  familiar  to  the 
gazer. 

"Hallo,  Walden!"  he  called,  in  a  voice 
which  was  unmistakable. 

"  Amos ! "    Walden    exclaimed,   starting    to 
meet  him.     "  Where  did  you  come  from  ?  "  re 
garding  him  with  delighted  amazement. 
129 


130  A  START   IN   LIFE 

"  From  home,  of  course,"  said  Amos,  laugh 
ing.  "  For  the  same  reason  that  made  you 
leave.  I  couldn't  stand  it  any  longer." 

He  might  have  added  that  the  letters  Wai- 
den  had  written  home  from  the  new  settlement 
had  inspired  him  with  a  restless  desire  to  try 
his  fortunes  with  him  there  in  the  backwoods, 
and  caused  their  mother  to  yield  a  reluctant 
consent  to  his  going. 

"What  did  Eli  say?"  Walden  asked, 

"To  my  leaving?  He  didn't  know  of  it," 
replied  Amos.  "Nor  James;  he  would  have 
come  too,  if  I  had  told  him.  Only  mother  and 
Susie  knew.  I've  walked  all  the  way." 

"You  must  be  tired!  "  said  Walden. 

"  I'm  tired  enough !  But  it  rests  me,  see 
ing  you,"  replied  the  happy  Amos. 

Then  what  long  talks  the  boys  had !  Amos 
delivering  messages  and  telling  news  from 
home,  and  Walden,  after  asking  a  hundred 
questions  and  showing  the  store,  relating 
more  in  full  the  experiences  he  had  briefly 
touched  upon  in  his  letters.  Amos  was  espe 
cially  pleased  to  learn  of  Mr.  A.  Randolph 


A  BEE-HUNT  131 

Hedgewick's  dismissal;  and  he  had  many  a 
good  laugh  at  his  former  schoolmaster's  ex 
pense. 

He  had  come  to  work ;  and  his  offer  of  ser 
vices  was  welcome  just  then  to  Mr.  Brooke, 
who  proposed  that  he  should  take  Walden's 
place,  and  make  himself  generally  useful,  while 
Walden  continued  to  fill  that  of  the  departed 
Ase. 

Amos  gladly  accepted,  and  set  to  work  the 
next  morning  with  willing  hands.  He  was 
not  so  old  within  two  years  as  his  brother,  nor 
so  skilful  with  the  axe  ;  but  he  was  strong  and 
intelligent,  and  Mr.  Brooke,  watching  him 
with  evident  satisfaction,  said  to  Walden, — 

"  He'll  do !  he'll  do  !  "  adding,  "  It  happens 
just  right  for  me.  I've  got  to  make  a  journey 
to  the  East  next  week ;  and  I  was  wondering, 
till  your  brother  came,  whether  I  could  leave 
you  in  charge  of  the  store.  But  with  him  to 
help,  when  you  need  help,  I  rather  think  I 
can." 

"  I'll  do  my  best  to  take  care  of  things ;  and 
I'm  sure  I  can  rely  on  Amos,"  replied  Walden. 


132  A  START  IN  LIFE 

The  boys  were  very  happy  together ;  and 
everything  went  smoothly  with  them,  in  their 
employer's  absence,  until  a  few  days  before  he 
was  expected  to  return. 

In  the  month  of  May,  about  the  time  when 
he  saw  his  raccoon  running  up  the  old  elm  on 
the  edge  of  the  clearing,  Walden,  exploring  the 
woods  one  afternoon,  had  made  another  discov 
ery.  On  the  stump  of  a  maple  tree  that  had 
been  recently  cut,  he  noticed  some  bees  feed 
ing  on  the  still  oozing  sap,  and  observed  that 
they  flew  away  in  a  certain  direction. 

"  They  are  honey  bees,"  he  said  to  himself, 
"  and  there  must  be  a  bee-tree  not  far  off." 

He  cut  from  the  top  of  the  stump  a  few 
chips  sticky  with  the  sweet  juice,  and  scattered 
them,  at  intervals  of  a  hundred  yards  or  so, 
along  the  ground  in  the  direction  of  the  bees' 
flight.  Returning  the  next  day,  he  found  them 
alighting  on  the  chips,  or  darting  away  from 
them,  in  lines  of  flight  which  finally  drew  his 
eye  to  the  top  of  a  tall  chestnut,  deep  in  the 
forest. 

Again  he  told  nobody  of  his  discovery  except 


A  BEE-HUNT  133 

the  friendly  tavern-keeper,  who  chuckled  and 
said,  — 

"  We  had  our  little  coon-hunt,  that  turned 
out  lucky ;  an'  now  I  shouldn't  wonder  a  mite 
if  we  should  be  tacklin'  a  bee-tree,  some  day. 
Say  no  thin',  but  wait  till  the  right  time  comes, 
an'  ol'  man  Gadbury  is  the  one  to  show  ye  how 
to  git  the  sweet  without  the  stings." 

"I  think  I'd  better  ask  Mr.  Brooke  if  we 
can  cut  the  tree ;  for  I  believe  it  is  on  his 
land,"  said  Walden. 

Mr.  Brooke's  permission  was  readily  ob 
tained.  Yet  the  time  for  getting  the  honey 
would  not  comer  in  the  tavern-keeper's  judg 
ment,  until  the  bees  had  had  time  to  lay  in 
their  next  winter's  supply,  and  the  weather 
was  cold  enough  to  keep  them  quiet  when 
their  home  should  be  disturbed. 

But  one  day,  in  Mr.  Brooke's  absence,  Gad- 
bury  came  to  Walden  and  said,  — 

"  I've  ben  keepin'  my  eye  on  that  'ere  bee- 
tree,  an'  I  guess  mabby  the  time's  come  for 
cuttin'  on't.  Who  d'ye  think  I  seen  there  this 
forenoon,  'ith  his  head  flopped  over  on  his  back 


134  A   START   IN  LIFE 

like  he  would  break  his  neck  off,  an'  his  eyes 
a-starin'  straight  up  into  the  canopy  o'  heaven, 
in  the  direction  o'  that  'ere  tree-top;  so  in- 
gaged,  he  never  spied  me  till  I  started  to  walk 
past,  jes'  as  if  I  hadn't  noticed  him  ?  'Twas 
your  friend  Ase.  He  spoke,  an'  I  spoke,  civil 
enough ;  but  nuther  one  on  us  mentioned  bees, 
oh  no ! " 

It  was  the  old  man's  opinion  that,  if  they  did 
not  get  the  honey  very  soon,  somebody  else 
would;  and  they  accordingly  made  prepara 
tions  for  securing  it  that  afternoon. 

Luke  Ball,  one  of  Mr.  Brooke's  wood-chop 
pers,  was  then  let  into  the  secret  and  invited 
to  assist.  Amos,  much  to  his  regret,  was  left 
in  charge  of  the  store.  Walden  provided  sul 
phur  for  smoking  the  bees  in  their  cavity ;  and 
with  mittens  and  veils  for  their  hands  and 
faces,  buckets  for  bringing  away  the  honey, 
arid  axes  for  felling  the  tree,  the  little  party 
entered  the  forest. 

The  tree  was  about  half  cut  when  the  sound 
of  the  axes  brought  somebody  tramping 
towards  it  through  the  woods. 


A  BEE-HUNT  135 

"It's  Ase!"said  Gadbury,  biting  his  plug. 
"  Keep  to  work,  boys ;  don't  mind  him  a  hooter. 
I'll  settle  his  hash  !  " 

They  plied  their  axes,  Walden  on  one  side 
of  the  tree,  and  Luke  on  the  other,  and  the 
chips  were  flying  in  lively  fashion  when  Hedge- 
wick  came  up,  calling  out,  angrily,  — 

"  Look  here  !  you're  cutting  my  bee-tree !  " 

"How  come  it  yourn?"  the  old  man  in 
quired. 

"  I  found  it,  two  weeks  ago ;  it's  got  my 
mark  on  it." 

"Somebody  else  found  it  two  months  ago ; 
an'  got  Brooke's  consent  to  cuttin'  on't,  long 
'fore  ever  you  sot  up  a  claim  tu  it,"  replied 
Gadbury. 

"  Who  cares  for  Brooke's  consent  ?  "  Ase  re 
torted.  "A  man's  got  a  right  to  a  bee-tree 
wherever  he  finds  it,  in  these  woods." 

"Wai,"  said  the  old  man,  "you're  in  the 
right  on't,  fuzino.  An'  we're  in  the  right  on't 
'cordin'  to  your  own  account,  a-takin'  the  tree." 
And  he  gave  a  half-audible  chuckle.  "Peg 
away,  boys ! " 


136  A  STAKT  IN  LIFE 

"  I'm  going  to  have  my  share  o'  that  honey ; 
you  see ! "  cried  Ase,  turning  and  walking 
rapidly  away. 

"  He's  a-goin'  fer  buckets,"  said  the  old  man. 
"Let  him!  he'll  be  jest  a  little  mite  dis- 
comfusticated,  like  as  not,  when  he  brings 
'em !  " 

With  flint  and  steel  and  powder,  and  dry 
leaves  and  twigs,  he  proceeded  to  start  a  fire ; 
which  he  had  ready  on  a  broad  piece  of  bark 
covered  with  earth,  by  the  time  the  tree  came 
crashing  down.  Then,  mittened  and  veiled,  he 
rushed  to  the  top,  to  find  the  hollow  occupied 
by  the  bees. 

A  large  limb  had  been  split  in  falling ;  it 
hummed  with  the  maddened  swarm  within,  and 
out  of  a  broad  crack  honey  was  pouring  in  a 
stream  of  lucent  gold.  Walden,  likewise  mit 
tened  and  veiled,  came  bringing  the  buckets  to 
catch  it ;  while  Luke  hastened  to  make  an 
under-cut  at  a  place  the  old  man  pointed  out, 
where  the  burning  sulphur  was  to  be  intro 
duced. 

There  seemed  to  be   surprisingly  few  bees 


A  BEE-HUNT  137 

about  them  at  first;  but  they  soon  began  to 
descend  from  the  forest-tops,  and  pour  out  of 
the  broken  limb,  and  dart  hither  and  thith 
er,  in  swift  zigzags  and  whizzing  circles ;  and 
soon  the  air  was  full  of  them.  Gadbury  had 
intended  to  leave  them  for  a  while,  in  order  to 
let  the  ignited  sulphur  do  its  work ;  but  the 
prospect  of  Hedgewick's  speedy  return  caused 
him  and  his  companions  to  hurry  up  their  oper 
ations. 

Luke  laid  open  the  smoking  limb ;  and  Wai- 
den  and  the  old  man,  coughing,  and  half 
blinded  by  the  sulphurous  fumes,  cut  out,  with 
ladle  and  scoop,  great  masses  of  the  dripping 
comb,  and  filled  the  buckets.  They  were  in 
the  midst  of  this  exciting  work  when  Ase  re 
turned,  bringing  a  big  black  kettle  and  a  small 
tin  pail,  and  bellowed  out  at  a  distance,  — 

"Where's my  share?" 

"  Here  'tis !  "  Gadbury  answered,  in  a  muf 
fled  voice.  "  Come  an'  git  it !  " 

Hedgewick  started  to  act  upon  this  friendly 
suggestion,  thinking,  no  doubt,  he  would  find 
safety  where  there  was  so  much  smoke,  al- 


138  A  START  IN   LIFE 

though  he  had  not  provided  himself  with  a  veil. 
But,  as  he  drew  near,  it  seemed  as  if  the  entire 
baffled  and  infuriated  swarm  gathered  to  wreak 
vengeance  on  him.  Away  went  the  tin  pail  as 
he  flung  up  his  hand  to  brush  out  his  buzzing 
hair.  Then,  turning  to  retreat,  he  dropped  his 
clattering  kettle,  and  ran  with  both  hands  fly 
ing  wildly  about  his  neck  and  ears,  until  a  dead 
limb  on  the  ground  tripped  his  heels,  and  he 
sprawled  headlong. 

"  Oh,  that  Ase !  that  Ase  ! "  said  Walden, 
convulsed  with  laughter  even  at  that  critical 
moment,  with  the  smoke  in  his  eyes  and  nos 
trils  and  the  bees  getting  in  a  sting  or  two 
despite  his  veil.  "  He'll  be  the  death  of  me 
yet." 

Hedgewick  was  up  and  running  again  by 
that  time,  slapping  and  cursing. 

"  'Minds  me  of  that  'ere  yaller  pup  o'  War- 
rett's,  arter  the  coon  bit  him,"  said  the  old 
man,  as  he  heaped  up  the  honey-comb  in  the 
last  of  the  three  pails.  "  Wonder  if  he's  found 
out  when  sawmills  an'  bears  was  fust  invented 
—  an'  bees,  tew,  fer  that  matter !  Why  don't 


A   BEE-HUNT  139 

ye  come  an'  pick  up  your  kittle  an*  pail,  and 
take  your  sheer  ?  It's  here  in  the  holler  limb  !  " 
he  called  out  to  Ase,  who  was  by  this  time  afar 
off  in  the  woods,  still  fighting  the  too  persistent 
bees. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

A  BUBGLABY,  WHICH  LOOKED  ALSO  LIKE  A  REVENGE. 

THE  buckets  well  filled  with  honey  and 
heaped-up  comb,  a  sapling  which  Luke  had 
cut  was  passed  through  the  bails,  and  they 
were  triumphantly  carried  off  by  him  and  Wai- 
den,  resting  the  weight  on  their  shoulders; 
while  the  old  man  followed  with  an  axe  in  each 
hand. 

"  I  got  tew  or  three  pesky  little  stings,"  he 
said ;  "  one  up  my  trouses-leg,  an'  one  in  my 
sleeve.  But  all's  fair  in  war-time.  Can't 
blame  the  bees.  I  tell  ye,  boys,  I  hain't  had 
sich  a  campaign  sence  I  carried  a  musket  an*  fit 
an'  bled  under  our  gre't  and  good  commander, 
Gin'ral  Jawge  Wash'n'ton  ! " 

As  bees  still  followed  them,  they  did  not 
venture  to  unveil  until  they  had  got  their 
honey  safe  in  the  cellar  of  the  store,  where  it 
was  to  be  divided. 

140 


CARRYING   HOME   THE    HONEY.       Page  140. 


A   BURGLARY  141 

"  We  got  that  'ere  bucket  a  leetle  tew  full," 
said  the  old  man.  "  I  didn't  ca'c'late  on  the 
comb's  settlin'  down  so." 

"  It's  running  over  on  the  floor  here  now," 
said  Walden,  who  hastened  to  bring  a  basin 
and  take  out  some. 

Gadbury  then  selected  a  bucket  for  himself, 
leaving  one  for  Walden  and  one  for  Mr.  Brooke. 

"You  shall  have  a  share,  too,"  Walden 
said  to  Luke  Ball.  "You  got  stung  worse 
than  either  of  us.  Here's  yours,  Amos,"  giving 
his  brother  the  well  filled  basin.  "  This  is  for 
staying  here  and  not  getting  stung." 

"I'd  rather  have  gone  and  got  stung,"  re 
plied  Amos,  who  could  not  cease  to  regret  the 
fun  he  had  missed. 

The  honey  had  been  brought  in  through  the 
cellar  door,  which  Walden  now  shut  and 
fastened  on  the  inside.  Even  the  pain  of  his 
stings  did  not  lessen  his  satisfaction  in  the 
results  of  the  afternoon's  adventure,  which 
was  something  to  talk  about  and  brag  of  to  all 
comers.  But  the  sequel  was  not  so  pleasant. 

When  he  went  to  the  store  the  next  morn- 


142  A   START  IN  LIFE 

ing,  an  astonishing  sight  met  his  eye.  The 
cellar  had  been  broken  into,  and  one  of  the 
buckets  with  its  entire  contents  had  disap> 
peared. 

The  other  bucket  remained,  but  it  was  over 
turned,  and  what  was  left  of  the  honey  had  run 
out  on  the  ground. 

"Oh,  that  Ase!"  Walden  exclaimed  oncer 
more.  But  he  did  not  laugh  this  time. 

It  seemed  as  if  the  burglar  had  meant  to 
destroy  as  much  of  the  honey  as  he  could  not 
carry  away ;  and  Walden  felt  sure  it  was  the 
work  of  Hedgewick,  indulging  his  malice  whiL 
taking  more  than  his  supposed  share. 

The  simple  fastening  of  the  door  —  consist, 
ing  of  a  strong  wooden  latch,  the  string  of 
which  was  pulled  in  —  had  been  forced;  and 
the  door  stood  wide  open  when  Walden  came 
down  the  ladder  from  the  other  part  of  the 
store.  In  his  astonishment,  he  found  himself 
stepping  in  the  honey  and  tracking  it  about 
before  he  fully  realized  what  had  happened. 

"Amos!"  he  said,  —  for  Amos  also  came, 
attracted  by  his  exclamations  of  astonishment 


A  BUKGLABY  143 

and  anger  —  "  go  over  and  tell  Mr.  Gadbury  I 
want  to  see  him.  Say  nothing  to  anybody  else, 
and  be  quick ! " 

Gadbury  came,  and  saw,  and  shook  his  wise 
old  head. 

"Who  do  you  suppose  has  done  this?" 
Walden  asked. 

"  Id'n'o'n'ti  I "  The  old  man  bit  his  plug 
and  screwed  up  his  face  into  shrewd  wrinkles. 
"  But  I  can  e'ena'most  make  a  guess." 

"  So  can  I !  "  cried  Walden.  "  He  knows 
the  store  —  he  knows  just  where  we  would  be 
apt  to  leave  the  honey  over  night." 

"He's  a  revengeful  critter!"  commented 
the  old  man.  "  No  decent  thief  Vd  'a'  wanted 
to  make  sich  a  muss  'ith  what  he  couldn't  lug 
away.  Fer  my  part,  I  thought  he'd  be  so  laid 
up  'ith  his  bee-stings  't  he  couldn't  git  out  an' 
around  'n  a  hurry." 

"It's  his  stings  that  must  have  maddened 
him  to  do  this,"  said  Walden.  "As  if  'twas 
our  fault  that  he  got  stung!  All  that  nice 
honey  I  was  going  to  show  Mr.  Brooke  —  not  a 
pound  of  it  worth  saving ! "  And  he  seemed 


144  A  START  IN  LIFE 

almost  ready  to  cry  with  disappointment  and 
chagrin. 

"  Ain't  no  doubt  but  what  he  done  it,"  mused 
the  old  man.  "But  the  trouble  '11  be  to  prove 
it  agin'  him.  Best  way  is  jes'  to  keep  quiet, 
say  nothin'  to  nobody,  an'  see  what  '11  turn  up 
next." 

The  boys  thought  this  good  policy,  and  set 
to  work  to  clear  up  the  cellar  as  cheerfully  as 
boys  could  be  expected  to  do  on  so  trying  an 
occasion.  There  was  some  rubbish  not  easily 
accounted  for,  unless  the  burglar,  before  going 
off  with  his  booty,  had  amused  himself  by 
kicking  a  useless  pail  to  pieces.  This  was 
swept  into  a  corner,  a  new  fastening  was  fitted 
to  the  door,  and  the  cellar  closed. 

During  the  forenoon  Gadbury  sauntered 
over  through  the  woods  to  call  on  Hedgewick 
in  his  new  cabin;  and  reported  the  result  of 
his  observations  to  Walden  on  his  return. 

"I  pretended  to  be  huntin'  fer  more  bee- 
trees  ;  goin'  by,  I  jes'  looked  in  to  ax  him  'f  he 
got  his  sheer  o'  the  honey  we  lef  fer  him  in 
the  tree.  But  I  didn't  git  much  out  on  him. 


A  BURGLARY  145 

Grouties'  feller  ever  you  sot  eyes  on!  An' 
well  he  might  be ! "  the  old  man  chuckled. 

"  Did  you  see  any  signs  of  honey  ?  "  Walden 
asked. 

"  Nary  sign.  But  I  see  signs  of  bees,  plenty 
on  'em,  'bout  his  face  and  neck,  where  they  'd 
peppered  him.  I  complimented  him  on  his  new 
house,  an'  what  I'd  heerd  said  'bout  his  gittin' 
ready  to  marry  one  of  the  Warrett  gals.  But 
I  couldn't  dror  his  fire;  he  was  tew  mad  fer 
anything.  Can't  blame  him;  I  sh'd  be  mad  in 
his  place,  fuzino !  " 

"I  don't  see  that  we're  likely  to  find  out 
anything,"  grumbled  Walden. 

"  You  wait ! "  responded  the  oracular  old 
man.  "  Suthin'll  happen,  you  see ! " 

So  Walden  waited,  and  something  did  indeed 
happen,  although  not  by  any  means  what  he 
expected  or  wished. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

IN  WHICH  GADBURY'S  OLD  BE  VOLUTION  ABY  MUSKET 
PLAYS  AN  INTERESTING  PART. 

Two  nights  after  the  theft  of  the  honey,  the 
store  cellar  was  broken  into  again,  —  in  very 
much  the  same  way,  —  and  more  mischief  was 
done.  A  keg  of  maple-sugar  was  overturned, 
and  its  contents  were  purloined  or  scattered. 
Even  the  pork-barrel  suffered.  The  cover  was 
thrown  aside,  and  certainly  one  large  piece  of 
pork,  which  Walden  had  noticed  emerging 
from  the  brine  only  a  day  or  two  before,  had 
been  taken ;  how  much  more  he  did  not  know. 

"  It's  the  mos'  surprisin'est  thing  't  ever  I 
seen  er  heerd  tell  on  !  "  old  man  Gadbury  ex 
claimed,  when  he  was  once  more  called  in,  and 
found  Walden  gazing  astounded  at  the  scene 
of  the  last  night's  depredations. 

"To  think  of  the  scoundrel's  coming  a 
second  time ! "  said  Walden.  "  What  will 
Mr.  Brooke  think?" 

146 


GADBURY'S  REVOLUTIONARY  MUSKET  147 

"  Id'n'o'n'ti ! "  replied  the  old  man,  with  his 
plug  between  the  only  two  front  teeth  he  had 
left  good  for  a  bite.  "  But  I  know  what  he's 
expected  to  think.  He's  expected  to  make  up 
his  mind  't  he's  left  his  store  in  poor  hands,  an* 
't  if  he  wants  it  pertected  when  he's  away,  he'd 
better  call  back  somebody  't  knows  the  busi 
ness  better." 

"I  thought  of  that,"  said  Walden.  "Of 
course,  he  can't  bear  the  idea  of  the  store's 
prospering  since  he  was  discharged.  But  it 
shall  prosper!"  he  declared,  with  angry  em 
phasis.  "  And  I'll  protect  it ! " 

"  What  '11  ye  do  ?  "   queried  the  old  man. 

"  I'll  stay  here  and  stand  guard ! " 

"  Ye  better  not  du  it  alone,  youngster !  ItV 
a  desprit  scamp  'at  breaks  inter  a  buildin'  this 
way,  tew  nights  in  a  week;  an'  'f  he  comes 
agin,  an'  finds  nobody  but  a  boy  to  tackle  him, 
he  jes'  's  lives  du  ye  a  mischief  as  not." 

"I  shouldn't  think  he'd  be  such  a  fool  as  to 
come  a  third  time,"  said  Amos. 

"But  his  coming  a  second  time  shows  he 
may  be  just  that  kind  of  a  fool,"  replied 


148  A  START   IN  LIFE 

Walden ;  "  especially  if  his  object  is  not  only 
to  help  himself  to  things  he's  too  mad  to  come 
here  and  buy,  but  to  make  Mr.  Brooke  believe 
he  has  left  his  store  in  careless  hands.  Any 
way,  I  shall  keep  watch  now  every  night  till 
Mr.  Brooke  comes  back.  Will  that  old  musket 
of  yours  throw  a  load  of  buckshot?" 

"  It's  done  that  as  many  times  as  onct  sence 
I  ben  in  the  settlement,"  replied  the  old  man. 
"  An'  the  bagnet  '11  du  good  sarvice  in  a  clost 
fight.  Though  that  'ere  ol'  gun,"  he  added, 
mournfully,  "  ain't  the  weepon  it  wuz  when  I 
carried  it  in  the  Revolution,  an'  fit  under  our 
gre't  an'  good"  — 

"  Of  course  not,"  interrupted  Walden.  "  But 
will  it  shoot?" 

"  Wai,  yis  ;  clean  'er  out,  chuck  in  a  picked 
flint  an'  ile  up  the  lock,  'twill  do  at  short 
range." 

"I  don't  expect  anything  else  but  short 
range  with  a  burglar  like  this  one  ! "  said  Wal 
den. 

After  once  more  clearing  up  the  cellar,  and 
getting  what  was  left  of  the  crushed  and  soiled 


GADBURY'S  REVOLUTIONARY  MTJSKET  149 

sugar  back  into  the  keg,  he  brought  the  old 
musket  over  from  the  tavern  and  spent  a  good 
hour  or  two  in  preparing  it  for  use.  He 
washed  it  out  with  hot  water,  he  wiped  it 
out  with  tow,  he  picked  out  the  rusted  vent, 
adjusted  a  fresh  flint,  and  gave  the  lock  and 
the  hinge  of  the  pan  a  good  oiling ;  then  put 
ting  in  a  priming  and  a  light  charge  of  powder, 
he  fired  it  out  of  the  back  door. 

"  Shell  do  ! "  he  said  with  grim  satisfaction. 
"  That  was  only  for  fun.  Now  for  earnest." 

He  rammed  down  a  heavier  charge  of  pow 
der,  then  dropped  the  big  rattling  buckshot 
into  the  clumsy  iron  tube.  So  far  it  had  all 
seemed  a  serious  sort  of  sport  to  Amos ;  but  at 
the  sound  of  the  deadly  lead  falling  into  the 
barrel  he  turned  pale. 

"Do  you  really  mean  to  shoot  him  ?  "  he  in 
quired,  anxiously  watching  his  brother's  reso 
lute  face. 

"  Not  unless  I'm  obliged  to,"  said  Walden. 
kt  I  don't  want  to  hurt  anybody.  But  I've  been 
left  in  charge  of  the  store,  and  it's  my  business 
to  protect  it.  If  it's  necessary  to  use  a  gun,  I 


150  A   START  IN  LIFE 

shall  use  a  gun.  If  at  short  range,  as  the  old 
man  says,  then  some  rascal  may  get  hurt." 

"  You  ought  to  have  somebody  watch  with 
you,"  suggested  the  younger  brother. 

"  I  should  like  it.  But  I  don't  expect  you 
to." 

"  /  am  going  to  stay  with  you,  of  course  !  " 
Amos  exclaimed.  He  was  naturally  more 
timid  than  Walden,  yet  he  was  not  wanting 
in  resolution.  "  But  we  are  only  two  boys." 

"  Two  boys,  with  the  right  on  their  side,  and 
a  gun  that's  been  shouldered  by  a  patriot  in  the 
Revolution,  when  he  fit,  bled,  and  died  under 
that  gre't  an'  good  commander,  Gin'ral  Jawge 
Wash'n'ton,"  said  Walden,  imitating  the  old 
tavern-keeper's  speech,  and  causing  Amos  great 
ly  to  admire  his  coolness  while  he  laughed  at  his 
humorous  mimicry. 

"  I  thought  from  what  Gadbury  said,  when 
he  gave  you  the  gun,  he  might  watch  with  us," 
said  Amos.  "  I'd  get  him  and  Luke  Ball." 

"  Not  both  at  once,"  replied  Walden.  "We 
may  have  two  or  three  nights  of  watching.  I'd 
like  Gadbury  to-night,  and  then  Luke  to-mor- 


GADBURY'S  REVOLUTIONARY  MUSKET  151 

row  night,  if  I  don't  have  a  chance  to  fire  off 
this  old  musket  in  the  meantime." 

The  tavern-keeper  consented  to  watch  with 
the  boys  the  first  night ;  and,  quietly  leaving 
his  house  at  about  nine  o'clock,  he  entered  the 
store,  where  he  found  them  waiting  by  the  dim 
light  of  a  tallow  dip. 

The  store  consisted  of  two  rooms,  one  above 
and  one  partly  below  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
This  was  the  cellar,  in  the  rear  end  of  which 
was  the  door  that  had  been  forced  by  the 
marauder.  The  only  other  entrance  was  by  a 
trap-door  and  a  short  ladder  descending  from 
the  floor  above. 

The  walls  were  of  logs,  banked  up  on  the 
outside  to  exclude  the  winter's  cold.  Natural 
light  was  also  excluded,  except  such  as  came 
in  through  the  door  when  it  was  opened,  or 
from  the  trap  and  numerous  crevices  in  the 
upper  floor.  Between  that  and  the  cellar  floor 
of  hard  gravel  there  was  barely  room  for  a  man 
to  stand  upright. 

Into  this  dismal  place,  crowded  with  casks 
and  kegs  and  agricultural  tools,  Walden  groped 


152  A  START  IN  LIFE 

his  way  down  the  little  ladder,  carrying  hia 
candle  and  followed  by  Amos  and  the  old  man. 
The  glimmering  rays  showed  the  musket  al 
ready  there,  standing  with  a  pair  of  pitchforks 
beside  the  pork-barrel. 

"  Weepons  enough  fer  a  small  campaign ! " 
chuckled  the  old  man,  stooping  under  the  low 
ceiling  of  rough  slabs.  "  Why  don't  ye  fix  the 
bagnet?" 

"  The  gun  won't  shoot  so  well  with  the  bayo 
net  on,  will  it  ?  "  said  Walden. 

"  Jes'  's  well,  exac'ly,  't  short  range,"  replied 
the  old  man.  "  Bagnet  gives  ye  a  double  ad 
vantage.  Fust,  you  pull  trigger;  then  foller 
up  yer  shot  with  a  bagnet  charge.  I'll  give  ye 
a  lesson  if  the  scamp  comes  to-night."  And  he 
proceeded  to  fix  the  bayonet. 

Walden  was  quite  willing  that  Gadbury 
should  use  the  musket ;  for  now  that  the  time 
of  action  seemed  near,  and  he  had  only  the 
light  of  the  candle  to  cheer  him  in  that  gloomy 
cavern,  he  was  unable  to  take  quite  so  com 
placent  a  view  of  shooting  a  burglar  as  he  had 
done  by  daylight. 


GADBURY'S  REVOLUTIONARY  MUSKET  153 

He  armed  himself  with  one  of  the  forks  and 
gave  the  other  to  Amos,  then  sat  down  on  an 
empty  meal-bag  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder.  The 
old  man  had  a  blanket  to  repose  upon,  and  a 
molasses  cask  at  his  back,  opposite  the  door. 
Amos  squatted  by  the  pork-barrel. 

"Now,  'f  everything's  ready,"  said  the  old 
man,  "  hide  yer  light." 

Walden  had  an  empty  keg  provided  for  the 
purpose,  which  he  now  placed  over  the  candle 
on  the  gravelly  floor.  Utter  darkness  followed, 
accompanied  by  silence  so  profound  that  he 
could  hear  the  beating  of  his  own  heart,  and 
the  breathing  of  the  old  man  by  the  molasses 
cask.  He  was  not  a  coward,  and  yet  a  sense  of 
mystery  and  danger  made  his  blood  chill  for  a 
moment. 

"What  if  there's  more  than  one  of  'em?" 
whispered  Amos. 

"  They'll  find  three  of  us,"  said  the  old  man  ; 
"  an'  one  a  vet'ran  that's  ben  through  cam' 
paigns  in  the  Revolution,  an'  fit  under  "  — 

"  Tell  us  that  story  about  your  musket's 
killing  a  red-coat,"  suggested  Walden.  "  But 
speak  low." 


A  START  IN  LIFE 

"  I  guess  we  better  not  speak  at  all,"  Gad- 
bury  replied,  "  'f  we  don't  wanter  give  the  vil 
lain  warnin'  when  he  comes  tu  the  door.  I've 
got  the  range,  but  I  shall  be  onto  my  feet  when 
I  fire.  Level  shot's  the  best.  'Minds  me,"  he 
chuckled,  "of  a  man  't  I  knowed  onct,  that 
took  his  musket  out  int'  the  field  where  he  was 
ploughin',  to  shute  flocks  o'  pigeons  flyin'  over. 
But  jes'  's  often  's  he  hild  the  barrel  up  int'  the 
air  an'  snapped,  jes'  so  often  it  missed  fire. 
Bimeby,  arter  he'd  seen  about  the  thickest  flock 
ever  wuz  sail  right  clust  over  him,  an'  the  ol' 
musket  on'y  snapped  and  spilt  the  powder  out 
o'  the  pan,  he  got  riled. 

"  «  By  the  laws  !  '  says  he,  '  I'll  try  a  shot  at 
ol'  Goldin'  !  ' 

"  Ol'  Goldin'  was  his  best  ox.  He  levelled 
gun,  jerked  trigger,  an'  filled  his  flank  full  o' 
buckshot.  Ye  see,"  Gadbury  explained,  "flint 
wouldn't  throw  fire  into  the  pan  when  the 
barrel  was  hild  up  fer  the  pigeons,  but  it  *u'd 
du  it  every  time  when  'twuz  hild  down  fer  the 


The    tavern-keeper    was    inclined    to    talk 


GADBURY'S  REVOLUTIONARY  MUSKET  155 

enough;  but  he  would  immediately  fall  back 
upon  the  necessity  for  silence  whenever  he  was 
asked  again  for  the  story  of  the  slaughtered 
red-coat.  At  last,  as  it  grew  late,  he  became 
silent  altogether,  and  soon  his  deep  breathing 
betrayed  that  he  was  asleep. 

"Amos,"  Walden  whispered,  "go  to  sleep 
too,  if  you  want  to ;  there's  no  need  of  more 
than  one  keeping  awake." 

"  Think  I  can  sleep  when  we're  expecting  a 
burglar  to  smash  in  on  us  any  minute  ?  "  re 
plied  Amos. 

Yet,  as  no  burglar  smashed  in  for  the  next 
half-hour,  Amos  by  that  time  tranquilly  joined 
the  old  man,  beyond  the  confines  of  slumber. 

Then,  with  his  back  against  the  ladder-rungs, 
the  sharpness  of  which  he  had  somewhat 
ameliorated  with  meal-bags,  Walden,  still  sit 
ting  awake,  felt  oppressed  by  the  terrible  loneli 
ness  of  the  situation.  As  he  grew  weary  with 
waiting  and  thinking,  the  burglary,  which  had 
appeared  to  him  so  real  by  daylight,  began  to 
fade  to  a  sort  of  hideous  dream. 

"Are  we  just  making    fools    of    ourselves 


156  A  START  IN  LIFE 

here  ?  "  he  said  to  himself.  "  The  idea  of  my 
keeping  this  old  man  out  of  his  bed !  I  may 
as  well  get  my  head  on  something  and  go  to 
sleep  myself." 

At  that  moment  the  oppressive  silence  was 
broken  by  a  strange  brushing  sound,  as  of  a 
heavy  hand  passing  over  the  door  on  the  out 
side.  Walden  at  the  same  time  felt  a  curdling 
sensation  pass  over  his  flesh  and  culminate  in 
the  roots  of  his  hair. 

"  Gadbury  !  Amos  !  "  he  whispered,  not  dar 
ing  to  speak  loud.  "  Did  you  hear  ?  " 

Not  a  word  from  the  sleepers.  Then  came 
the  brushing  sound  again ;  it  seemed  this  time 
as  if  somebody  was  pressing  hard  against  the 
door.  He  reached  over  to  shake  the  tavern* 
keeper,  and  laid  his  hand  on  the  musket. 

At  that  moment  there  came  a  dull  crash,  and 
the  door  was  burst  in.  It  was  a  gloomy  night, 
affording  just  light  enough  for  Walden  to  see  a 
dark  form  stooping  on  the  threshold,  as  the 
door  swung  back. 

"  Who's  there  ?  "  he  shouted,  snatching  up  the 
gun  and  levelling  it,  as  he  rose  upon  one  knee. 


GADBURY'S  REVOLUTIONARY  MUSKET  157 

"Who?  O  Lord!  O  Lord!"  gasped  the 
terrified  Amos,  suddenly  awakened  from  a 
sound  sleep. 

"  Where  —  where  —  where's  my  gun  ?  "  stam 
mered  the  old  man,  fumbling  along  the  ground. 

"I've  got  it,"  said  Walden.  "Speak!"  he 
cried  out,  his  resolution  ringing  in  clear  tones 
through  the  tremors  of  fear  that  thrilled  him 
from  head  to  foot.  "  Or  I'll  fire." 

No  response  from  the  bold  marauder.  Neith 
er  did  he  attempt  to  retreat.  But  with  a  slow 
deliberate  motion  he  partly  rose  from  his  crouch 
ing  posture,  and  stood  half  erect,  under  the  low 
ceiling,  as  if  about  to  rush  upon  the  challenger 
back  there  in  the  darkness. 

"  Shute  !  shute  ! "  said  the  tavern-keeper. 
"  Massy  sakes  !  why  don't  you  shute  ?  " 

But  a  point-blank  discharge  at  three  paces 
seemed  such  certain  death  to  the  intruder  that 
the  boy  shrank  from  so  terrible  a  responsibility. 
He  would  give  him  one  more  chance. 

"  Speak,  I  say,  or  you're  a  dead  man  !  " 

Almost  at  the  same  instant  he  pulled  the 
trigger.  The  gun  snapped ;  there  was  a  spark 


158  A  START  IN  LIFE 

from  the  flint,  but  it  did  not  fall  into  the  pan. 
Thereupon  Amos,  overcome  by  the  mystery 
and  terror  of  the  situation,  felt  himself  one 
crawling  piece  of  flesh  from  scalp  to  shins, 
shrinking  and  shivering  behind  the  pork-barrel. 

"  Gi'  me  the  gun ! "  said  Gadbury,  in  hur 
ried,  husky  tones,  reaching  for  it  in  the  dark 
ness. 

But  Walden's  spirit  was  now  fully  roused, 
and  he  was  troubled  no  more  by  scruples  in 
regard  to  shooting  so  desperate  a  house-breaker. 
Click !  click !  he  cocked  the  musket  again  and 
threw  down  the  pan.  Meanwhile,  as  if  em 
boldened  by  the  first  futile  attempt  to  shoot 
him,  the  enemy  advanced  a  step,  rising  still 
more  erect,  dark  and  frightful,  between  Wai- 
den  and  the  faint  light  of  the  doorway,  until 
his  exposed  breast  almost  touched  the  point  of 
the  bayonet. 

Flash !  bang !  Two  lurid  gleams  from  pan 
and  muzzle,  and  a  deafening  explosion  filled  the 
cave  with  its  roar. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

IND  OF  THE  TRAGICAL  EPISODE  OF  THE  BURGLAR,   AND 
ALSO  OF  THIS  HISTORY. 

WALDEN  was  thrown  back  against  the  lad 
der,  almost  insensible,  by  the  recoil  of  the  gun. 
Gathering  himself  up  quickly,  however,  he  saw 
the  marauder  tumbling  out  at  the  door,  and 
heard  old  man  Gadbury  shrieking,  — 

"  Give  him  the  bagnet  now !  le'  me  have  the 
gun !  Unkiver  yer  light  an'  pitch  in  'ith  yer 
forks,  boys !  But  be  careful  —  the  critter  ain't 
dead  yit ! " 

Attempting  to  lift  the  cask  from  the  candle, 
Amos  upset  it,  and  put  out  the  light.  He  had 
lost  his  fork,  and  it  was  some  moments  before, 
in  his  agitation,  he  could  recover  it.  Mean 
while,  Walden  and  the  old  man  rushed  out  to 
a  strange  conflict,  and  filled  the  night  with 
their  confused  exclamations  and  yells  for 
help. 

159 


160  A  STAKT  IN  LIFE 

Help  and  a  lantern  soon  came  from  the 
tavern,  and  followed  the  cries  towards  the 
woods,  where  they  found  the  boys  with  their 
forks  and  the  old  man  with  his  "  bagnet," 
close  upon  the  wounded  foe  dragging  himself 
towards  the  woods  —  shaggy,  savage,  dying, 
but  still  turning  to  strike  and  snarl  when  too 
hard-pressed. 

On  returning  from  the  East  the  next  day, 
Mr.  Brooke  saw  the  tavern-keeper  and  the  two 
boys  in  front  of  the  store,  engaged  in  skinning 
an  enormous  black  bear. 

"  Ha !  where  did  you  get  that  fellow  ? "  he 
asked. 

"  We  cut  that  bee-tree  in  the  woods  the  other 
day,"  said  Walden,  "  and  I  suppose  he  tracked 
the  honey  that  dripped  from  one  of  the  pails, 
for  he  broke  into  the  store  that  very  night  to 
get  at  it.  He  came  again  two  nights  later  —  that 
was  night  before  last  —  and  got  at  the  sugar 
and  salt  pork  ;  so  we  kept  watch  last  night,  and 
caught  him." 

"  An*  will  ye  b'lieve,"  said  the  old  man,  "  we 


END   OF   THE   BURGLAR   EPISODE         161 

wuz  sich  discomfusticated  fools  't  we  never 
'spected  no  bear,  but  thought  'twuz  a  feller  't 
we  knowed  had  a  spite  agin  us  an'  the  store  ! 
We  might  'a'  kep'  on  'spectin'  him  all  our  lives, 
fuzino,  'f  we  hadn't  diskivered  the  real  thief; 
which  wa'n't  over-'n'- above  smart,  I  must  own, 
fer  a  Revolutionary  patriot  that  can  boast  of 
havin'  fit  an'  bled  under  that  gre't  an'  good 
commander,  Gin'ral  Jawge  Wash'n'ton ! " 

"  We  thought  he  had  carried  one  bucket  of 
honey  away,"  said  Walden.  "  But  it  seems  he 
had  broken  it  to  pieces,  and  then  scattered  the 
staves  about,  after  licking  them  clean.  If  I 
was  ever  glad  of  anything  in  my  life,"  he  went 
on,  "  it  was  when  I  found  I  had  sent  my  charge 
of  buckshot  into  the  heart  of  a  bear  instead  of 
a  man !  " 

"  I  should  say  so  ! "  exclaimed  Mr.  Brooke. 
Then,  after  listening  to  a  full  account  of  the 
supposed  burglaries,  "  I  don't  wonder  you  sus 
pected  somebody ;  but  he  isn't  so  bad  a  fellow 
as  that.  I'm  sorry  about  the  honey ;  but  you'll 
more  than  make  up  for  the  loss  by  securing 


162  A  START  IN   LIFE 

such  a  skin  as  that,  and  such  a  supply  of  bear- 
meat." 

Walden  was  a  happy  boy  that  day ;  and  he 
even  began  to  entertain  friendly  feelings 
towards  the  man  whom  he  had  triumphed 
over,  perhaps  not  unjustly,  but  whom  he  had 
most  unjustly  suspected. 

He  was,  if  possible,  made  happier  still  by  a 
bit  of  good  news  Mr.  Brooke  had  brought  him 
from  home. 

"My  brother  has  finally  squeezed  the  full 
amount  of  that  order  out  of  your  friend  Tad- 
more." 

From  this  time  forth,  the  boy  had  the  satis 
faction  of  feeling  that  he  was  more  firmly  estab 
lished  than  ever  in  the  business  and  confidence 
of  his  employer.  And  I  might  go  on  to  relate 
how,  before  many  years,  he  became  a  partner  in 
that  business ;  how  his  youngest  brother,  James, 
next  came  to  him,  and  then  his  mother  and 
sister,  and  finally  Eli  himself,  giving  up  the  old 
farm,  which  he  had  mismanaged,  and  gladly 
accepting  the  employment  Walden  gladly 


END  OF  THE  BURGLAR  EPISODE 

offered;  and  how,  "growing  up  with  the 
country,"  our  boy  of  the  backwoods  became 
one  of  its  large-hearted,  large-minded,  influen 
tial  men. 

But  I  only  set  out  to  tell  you  of  his  Start  in 

Life. 

THE  END. 


SERIRS 


THE    START    IN    LIFE 

By  J.  T.  TROWBRIDQB 

Cloth    Illustrated    Price  per  volume, 


A  Start  in  Life  :  A  STORY  OF  TOT 

GENESEE  COUNTRY. 

In  this  story  the  author  recounts  the  hard- 
ships  of  a  young  lad,  in  his  first  endeavor  to; 
start  out  for  himself.  It  is  a  tale  that  is  full 
of  enthusiasm  and  budding  hopes. 

'"    Biding  His  Time. 

"It  is  full  of  spirit  and  adventure,  and 
presents  a  plucky  hero  who  was  willing  to 
'bide  his  time,'  no  matter  how  great  the 
expectations  that  he  indulged  in  from  his 
uncle's  vast  wealth,  which  he  did  not  in  the 
least  covet."  —  Boston  Home  Journal. 

The  Kelp-  GatherefS  *  A  STORY  OF  THE  MAINE  COAST. 

A  bright  and  readable  story,  with  all  the  hints  of  character  and  thf 
vicissitudes  of  human  life,  in  depicting  which  the  author  is  an  acknowl 
edged  master. 

The  Scarlet  Tanager,  AWD  OTHER  BIPEDS. 

Every  new  story  which  Mr.  Trowbridge  begins  is  followed  through 
successive  chapters  by  thousands  who  have  read  and  re-read  many  times 
his  preceding  tales.  One  of  his  greatest  charms  is  his  absolute  truthful* 
ness.  He  does  not  depict  little  saints,  or  incorrigible  rascals,  but  just  dtp* 

The  Lattery  Ticket. 

"This  is  one  of  the  many  popular  stories  written  by  this  well-known 
author,  whose  name  on  the  title-page  of  a  book  makes  it  a  welcome  arrival 
to  most  of  the  young  people  who  read.  The  moral  is  always  good,  the 
influence  in  the  right  direction,  and  the  characters  so  portrayed  that  the 
right  is  always  rewarded  and  the  wrong  fails  to  prosper."—  Dubuquet 
Iowa,  Herald. 

The  Adventures  of  David  Vane  and  David  Crane. 

A  strong,  homely,  humorous  story  of  the  everyday  life  of  Americai 
country-bred  boys,  by  one  who  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  living  storv 
teller  in  his  peculiar  vein. 


LQTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  GO. 

90STON 


The  Tide-Mill  Stories 

fit  A  T.  TROWBRIOQB 


CtoflL    Illtistrafed.    Prtoiperonfciw,  tltt 
(Phil  and  His  Friends. 

The  her*  is  the  son  of  a  man  who  from  drink  got  Into  debt,  and,  after  hav 
ing  given  a  paper  to  a  creditor  authorizing  him  to  keep  the  son  as  a  se 
curity  for  his  claim,  ran  away,  leaving  poor  Phil  a  bond  slave.  The  story 
Involves  a  great  many  unexpected  incidents,  some  of  which  are  painful  and 
some  comic.  Phil  manfully  works  for  a  year  cancelling  his  father's  debt. 
and  then  escapes.  The  characters  are  strongly  drawn,  and  the  story  is  ab 
sorbingly  interesting. 


Tinkham  Brothers'  Tide-Mill. 

"  *  The  Tinkham  Brothers  '  were  the  devoted  sons  of  an  invalid  mother.  The 

Story  tells  how  they  purchased  a  tide-mill,  which  afterwards,  by  the  ill-will 
and  obstinacy  of  neighbors,  became  a  source  of  much  trouble  to  them.  It 
tells  also  how,  by  discretion  and  the  exercise  of  a  peaceable  spirit,  they  at 
last  overcome  all  difficulties."  —  Christian  Observer,  Lmiuvtile.Xy. 

The  Satin-wood  Box. 

'*  Mr.  Trowbridge  has  always  a  purpose  in  his  writings,  and  this  time  he 
has  undertaken  to  show  how  very  near  an  innocent  boy  can  come  to  the 
guilty  edge  and  yet  be  able  by  fortunate  circumstances  to  rid  himself  of  all 
suspicion  of  evil.  There  is  something  winsome  about  the  hero  ;  but  he  has 
a  singular  way  of  falling  into  bad  luck,  although  the  careful  reader  will 
never  feel  the  least  disposed  to  doubt  his  honesty."  —Syracuse  Standard. 

The  Little  Master. 

This  is  the  story  of  a  schoolmaster,  his  trials,  disappointments,  and  final 
victory.  It  will  recall  to  many  a  man  his  experience  in  teaching  pupils,  and 
in  managing  their  opinionated  and  self-willed  parents.  The  story  has  the 
charm  which  is  always  found  in  Mr.  Trowbridge's  works. 

"Many  a  teacher  could  profit  by  reading  of  this  plucky  ttttto  school 
master.'*—  Journal  of  Education. 

His  One  Fault. 

•'  As  for  the  hero  of  this  story  •  His  One  Fault*  was  absent-mindedness. 
He  forgot  to  lock  his  uncle's  stable  door,  and  the  horse  was  stolen.  In 
seeking  to  recover  the  stolen  horse,  he  unintentionally  stole  another.  In 
trying  to  restore  the  wrong  horse  to  his  rightful  owner,  he  was  himself  ar 
rested.  After  no  end  of  comic  and  dolorous  adventures,  he  surmounted  all 
his  misfortunes  by  downright  pluck  and  genuine  good  feeling.  It  is  a  noble 
contribution  to  juvenile  literature."  —Woman's  Journal. 

Peter  Budstone. 

"  Mr.  J.  T.  Trowbridge's  •Peter  Budstone'  is  another  of  those  altogether 
good  and  wholesome  books  for  boys  of  which  it  is  hardly  possible  to  speak  too 
highly.  Tnis  author  shows  us  convincingly  how  juvenile  reading  may  be 
made  vivacious  and  interesting,  and  yet  teach  sound  and  clean  lessons. 
•Peter  Budstone  '  shows  forcibly  the  folly  and  crime  of  «  hazing.'  It  is  the 
story  of  a  noble  young  fellow  whose  reason  is  irreparably  overthrown  by 
the  savage  treatment  ne  received  from  some  of  hia  associates  at  college". 
It  is  a  powerful  little  book,  and  we  wish  every  schoolboy  and  oollefie  youth 
•Mid  read  it."-  fhUadelphia  American. 


Lothrop,  Lee  &  Shepard  Co,,  Boston 


The  Silver  Medal  Stories 

By  J.  T.  TROWBRIDQE 

Stoe  volumes.    Cloth.    Illustrated.    Price  per  volume,  flM 


The  Silver  Medal,  AND  OTHER  STORIES. 

There  were  some  schoolboys  who  had  turned  housebreakers,  and  among  their 
plunder  was  a  silver  medal  that  had  been  given  to  one  John  Harrison  by  the 
Humane  Society  for  rescuing  from  drowning  a  certain  Benton  Barry.  Now  Benton 
Barry  was  one  of  the  wretched  housebreakers.  This  is  the  summary  of  the  opening 
chapter.  The  story  is  intensely  interesting  IB  Its  serious  as  well  as  its  humorous 
para. 

His  Own  Master. 

11  This  is  a  book  after  the  typical  boy's  own  heart  Its  hero  is  a  plucky  young 
fellow,  who,  seeing  no  chance  for  himself  at  home,  determines  to  make  his  own 
vay  in  the  world.  ...  He  sets  out  accordingly,  trudges  to  the  far  West,  and  finds 
the  road  to  fortune  an  unpleasantly  rough  one."— Philadelphia  Inquirer. 

Bound  in  Honor. 

This  story  is  of  a  lad,  who,  though  not  guilty  of  any  bad  action,  has  been  an 
eye-witness  of  the  conduct  of  his  comrades,  and  felt  "  Bound  in  Honor  "  not  to 
telL 

"A  capital  book  in  all  respects,  overflowing  with  all  sorts  of  fan  and  adventure  ; 
Just  the  sort  of  book,  in  short,  that  the  young  folks  will  be  anxious  to  read  and 
re-read  with  as  much  continuous  interest  as  the  most  favored  of  their  storybooks." 
—  Philadelphia  Leader. 

The  Pocket  Rifle. 

"A  boy's  story  which  win  be  read  with' avidity. as  it  ought  to  be, it  is  so 
brightly  and  frankly  written,  and  with  such  evident  knowledge  of  the  tempera 
ments  and  habits,  the  friendships  and  enmities  of  schoolboys."— Jfoto  York 
Mail. 

"This  is  a  capital  story  for  boys.  It  teaches  honesty,  integrity,  and  friendship, 
and  how  best  they  can  be  promoted.  It  shows  the  danger  of  hasty  judgment  and 
circumstantial  evidence ;  that  right-doing  pays,  and  dishonesty  never."  —  Chicago 
Inter- Ocean. 

The  Jolly  Rover. 

"  This  book  will  help  to  neutralize  the  ffl  effects  of  any  poison  which  children 
may  have  swallowed  in  the  way  of  sham-adventurous  stories  and  wildly  fictitious 
tales.  '  The  Jolly  Hover '  runs  away  from  home,  and  meets  life  as  it  is,  till  he  is 
glad  enough  to  seek  again  his  father's  house.  Mr.  Trowbridge  has  the  power  of 
making  an  instructive  story  absorbing  in  its  interest,  and  of  covering  a  moral  so 
that  it  is  easy  to  take."  —  Christian  Intelligencer. 

Young  Joe,  AND  OTHER  BOYS. 

"  Young  Joe,"  who  lived  at  Bass  Cove,  where  he  shot  wild  ducks,  took  some  to 
town  for  sale,  and  attracted  the  attention  of  a  portly  gentleman  fond  of  shooting. 
This  gentleman  went  duck  shooting  with  Joe,  and  their  adventures  were  more 
amusing  to  the  boy  than  to  the  amateur  sportsman. 

There  are  thirteen  other  short  stories  in  the  book  which  wffl  be  tor*  to  please 
the  young  folks. 

Complete  Illustrated  Catalogue  sent  free  on  application, 


Lothrop,  Lee  &  Shepard  Co.,  Boston 


THE  TOBY  TRAFFORD  SERIES 


By  J.  T.  TR0WBRIDQB 


Thane  Volumes.  .    .     CZotfu    . 

Price  per  volume $1.26 


The  Fortunes  of  Toby  Trafford. 

"A  new  story  by  J.  T.  Trowbridge,  is,  like  all  Mr.  Trowbridge's  fiction,  the 
good  wine  that  needs  no  bush.  The  plot  is  full  of  interest,  and  is  still  so 
natural  that  it  all  might  happen  in  a  thousand  places.  Its  scenes  and  its 
people  are  everywhere;  only  few  writers  have  Trowbridge's  eyes  to  see 
them.  The  hero  is  not  an  impossibly  good  boy,  but  he  has  manly  instincts ; 
and  he  is  kept  from  follies  and  mistakes  by  the  counsels  of  an  excellent 
mother,  and  of  his  wise  and  noble-hearted  schoolmaster.  Boys  will  follow 
his  career  and  his  good  and  bad  fortune  with  genuine  interest." — Bottom 
Budget. 

Father  Brighthopes ;  AN  OLD  CLERGYMAN'S  VACATION. 

"  To  the  many  friends  which  this  book  will  doubtless  gain  it  may  be  well 
to  say  that  Father  Brighthopes  of  the  story  gains  that  cheery  name  by  his 
readiness  to  always  see  the  bright  and  not  the  dark  side  of  any  difficulty, 
great  or  small.  The  few  weeks  which  he  spent  with  his  friends,  the  Roy- 
dons,  wrought  a  change  in  their  daily  life  as  marked  as  it  was  pleasant.  The 
writings  of  Trowbridge  are  too  well  known  to  require  comment,  since  almost 
everyone  is  familiar  with  his  straightforward,  simple  style,  underlying 
which  there  is  not  a  little  humor  as  well  as  pathos,"— Chicago  Times. 

Woodie  Thorpe's  Pilgrimage,  AND  OTHER  STORIES. 

"  The  scenes  are  full  of  human  interest  and  lifelikeness,  and  will  please 
many  an  old  reader,  as  well  as  the  younger  folks,  for  whose  delectation  it  is 
intended.  As  in  all  the  books  of  this  author  the  spirit  is  manly,  sincere, 
and  in  the  best  sense  moral.  There  is  no  "  goody  "  talk  and  no  cant,  but 
principles  of  truthfulness,  integrity,  and  self-reliance  are  quietly  inculcated 
by  example.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  any  boy  will  be  the  better  for  reading 
books  like  this."— St.  Botolph. 


For  tale  by  all  booksellers  or  tent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  pnet 
by  the  publishers.       Our  Illustrated  Catalogue  tent  /to. 


Lothrop,  Lee  &  Shepard  Co*,  Boston 


The  Trowbridge  Novels 

By  J.  T.  TROWBRIDGE 
@0fct  Fondues.    OoA.    JTeu;  unyomMndtoig.    Fiice  «.*>  em*, 

Neighbor  Jackwood.     New  Revised  Edition,  with  Autobio- 

graphical  Chapter. 

«  It  sparkles  with  wit,  It  is  liquid  with  humor,  It  has  the  unmistakable 
touch  of  nature,  and  it  has  a  procession  of  characters  hke  a  novel  of  Scott; 
indeed,  in  many  ways  it  recalls  that  great  master."—  John  Burroughs. 

<A  new  edition  o'f  one  of  the  most  successful  of  this  favorite  author's 
hooks.  It  will  be  read  with  fresh  interest  by  many  who  have  welcomed  it 
to  earlier  editions,  and  to  those  who  now  give  it  their  first  reading  ;  it  ,  wiU 
yield  delightful  entertainment,  and  unfold  lessona  that  will  live  long  in  the 
memory.'—  Gospel  Banner. 

••  'Coupon  Bonds'  Is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  best  stories  ever  published 
in  this  country.  It  is  a  most  happy  and  felicitous  stroke.  It  is  brim- 
ful  of  the  very  best  quality  of  humor,  —  the  humor  that  grows  naturally 
out  of  the  character  and  the  situation,  and  it  moves  along  briskly,  without 
»ny  urging  or  pushing  by  the  author.  It  is  full  of  incident,  full  of  charac 
ter,  full  of  novel  and  ludicrous  surprises  and  situations."  -  Scnbner'9 
Monthly. 

Cudjo's  Cave. 

"  This  is  one  of  Mr.  Trowbridge's  best  stories.  His  readers  are  accus 
tomed  to  plenty  of  lively  incidents  and  exciting  adventures,  and  in  this 


volume  the  supply  is  surely  abundant.    The  story  opens  with  the  struggle 
hoolmaster  in  Tennessee  previous  to  the  opening  of  the  late 


of  a  Quaker  sc 


war,  and  the  exciting  scenes  attendant  upon  the  opening  of  the  great 
struggle  between  the  North  and  South  are  portrayed  in  a  graphic  manner 
•  Cudjo's  Cave  '  is  a  book  to  make  a  favorable  impression,"—  Capital. 

Three  Scouts. 

This  story  is  a  companion  to  '*  Cudjo's  Cave  "  and  "  The  Drummer  Boy,** 
in  being  a  narrative  of  stormy  events  in  the  Civil  War,  when  the  army  of 
the  Cumberland,  under  Rosecrans,  and  the  Confederate  forces,  under 
Bragg,  were  battling  with  each  other  to  1862.  Yet  it  is  complete  to  itself  as 
a  story. 

The  Drummer  Boy.    Illustrated. 

The  author  of  this  book  is  so  famous  as  a  story-  writer  that  another  ex- 
cellent  one  is  only  what  all  his  readers  expect.  It  is  a  story  of  the  late  war. 
and  of  a  boy  who  went  into  the  army  as  a  drummer,  and  who,  from  the  good 
instructions  of  a  fond  and  noble  mother,  sought  to  impart  to  his  rude  and 
reckless  companions  some  of  the  good  of  his  own  character. 

Farnell's  Folly. 

All  the  sterling  qualities  which  have  placed  Mr.  Trowbridge  among 
the  foremost  of  American  novelists  are  to  oe  found  to  this  new  romance- 
It  is  not  a  short  story  or  series  of  sketches  that  may  be  "  devoured  "  to  an 
hour,  but,  as  the  number  of  its  pages  testify,  a  full-blooded  romance,  alive 
with  incident,  and  overflowing  with  interest. 

Martin  Merrivale:   His  X  MARK. 

This  story  of  New  England  life  abounds  in  passages  of  rare  humor  and 
pathos.  Not  even  to  "  Coupon  Bonds  "  nor  in  "  Neighbor  Jackwood  "  has 
Trowbndge  created  characters  better  fitted  to  give  him  enduring  fame. 
Nc  one  can  read  the  story  without  seeing  that  the  author  has  put  his  whole 
•oulinit. 

For  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price. 
Our  Complete  Catalogue  sent  free. 

Lothrop,  Lee  &  Shepard  CoM  Boston 


ON  THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  SIOUX 

The  Adventures  of  Two  Boy  Scouts  on 
the  Minnesota  Frontier 


Illustrated    12mo 


ON  THE  TRAIL 
2L™*  SIOUX 


By   D.    LANQE 
Cloth    Price,  Net,  $1.00   Postpaid,  $1.10 

THIS  story  was  written  by  a  prominent 
educator  to  satisfy  the  insistent  demand  of 
active  boys  for  an  "  Indian  Story,"  as  well  as 
to  help  them  to  understand  what  even  the  young 
endured  in  the  making  of  our  country.  The  story 
is  based  on  the  last  desperate  stand  of  the  brave 
and  warlike  Sioux  tribes  against  the  resistless 
tide  of  white  men's  civilization,  the  thrilling 
scenes  of  which  were  enacted  on  the  Minnesota 
frontier  in  the  early  days  of  the  Civil  War. 

*'  It  is  a  book  which  will  appeal  to  yonng  and  old 
alike,  as  the  incidents  arc  historically  correct  and 
related  in  a  wide-awake  manner."  —  Philadelphia 
Press. 

"  It  seems  like  a  strange,  true  story  more  thar. 
fiction.  It  is  well  written  and  in  good  taste,  and 
it  can  be  commended  to  all  boy  readers  and  to  many 
of  theirelder*."—  Hartford  Times. 

THE  SILVER  ISLAND  OF 
THE  CHIPPEWA 

By   D.   LANQE 
Illustrated    12mo   Cloth   Price,  Net ,$1.00  Postpaid,  $1.10 

HERE  is  a  boys'  book  that  tells  of  the  famous 
Silver  Island  in  Lake  Superior  from  which 
it  is  a  fact  that  ore  to  the  value  of  $3,089,000 
was  taken,  and  represents  a  youth  of  nineteen 
and  his  active  small  brother  aged  eleven  as 
locating  it  after  eight  months  of  wild  life,  dur 
ing  which  they  wintered  on  Isle  Royale.  Their 
success  and  escape  from  a  murderous  half-breed 
are  due  to  the  friendship  of  a  noble  Chippewa 
Indian,  and  much  is  told  of  Indian  nature  and 
ways  by  one  who  thoroughly  knows  the  subject. 

••  There  is  no  call  to  buy  cheap,  impossible  stuff 
for  boys'  reading  while  there  is  such  a  book  as  this 
available*" — Philadelphia  Inquirer. 

For  tale  by  mil  booksellers  or  seat  postpaid  on  receipt 
of  price  by  the  publishers 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  BOSTON 


THE  SILVER  ISLAND 
OF  THE  CHIPPEWA 


BOOKS   BY  EVERETT  T.   TOMLINSON. 


THE-BOY 

.VSAILORS 


THE  WAR  OF   1812  SERIES 

Seven  volumes  Cloth   Illustrated  Price  per  volume,  $1.25 

NO  American  writer  for  boys  has  ever 
occupied  a  higher  position  than  Dr. 
Tomlinson,  and  the  "War  of  1812  Series" 
covers  a  field  attempted  by  no  other  juvenile 
literature  in  a  manner  that  has  secured  con 
tinued  popularity. 

The  Search  for  Andrew  Field 
The  Boy  Soldiers  of  1812 
The  Boy  Officers  of  1812 
Teeumseh's  Young  Braves 
Guarding  the  Border 
The  Boys  with  Old  Hickory 
The  Boy  Sailors  of  1812 

ST.   LAWRENCE  SERIES 

Cloth    Illustrated    $1.50  per  volume 

'PHE  author  stands  in  the  very  front  rank  in  ability  to  instruct  the 
I.  young  while  entertaining  them  and  here  presents  a  series  in  his  best 
and  strongest  vein.  A  party  of  boys,  fascinated  by  the  glowing  narrative 
of  Parkman,  spend  several  summers  in  camp  and  on  the  majestic  St. 
Lawrence,  tracing  the  footsteps  of  the  early  explorers,  and  having  the 
best  time  imaginable  in  combining  pleasure  with  information. 

CAMPING  ON  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE 

Or,  On  the  Trail  of  the  Early  Discoverers 

THE  HOUSE-BOAT  ON  THE  ST,  LAWRENCE 

Or,  Following  Frontenae 

CRUISING  IN  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE 

Or,  A  Summer  Vacation  in  Historic  Waters 

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of  price  by  the  publishers 

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OUR   OWN  LAND   SERIES 

By  EVERETT  T.  TOHLINSON 

Illustrated      Cloth      12mo      $1.50  each 

U*OUR  boy  friends  who  chance  to  represent  respectively  the  northern, 
*  southern,  eastern,  and  western  sections  of  our  country,  join  in  a 
number  of  trips  about  the  country,  often  in  a 
private  car  furnished  by  the  father  of  one  of 
them.  They  come  to  appreciate  their  own  land 
by  seeing  it,  and  learn  history  by  visiting  historic 
places.  Above  all,  they  have  a  good  time,  and 
so  will  every  one  who  reads  this  series. 

Four  Boys  in  the  Yellowstone 
Four  Boys  in  the  Land  of  Cotton 
Four  Boys  on  the  Mississippi 
Four  Boys  and  a  Fortune 
Four  Boys  in  the  Yosemite 
Four  Boys  on  Pike's  Peak 


FOUR  BOYS  INTHE 

IAND  OF  COTTON 


E.T.TOMUNSON 


••  It  will  be  a  genuine  pleasure  and  a  source  of  no  little  profit,  to  the  vast 
majority  of  American  boys,  to  see  something  of  their  own  great  country  through 
the  eyes  of  the  delightful  boy  characters  whom  Dr.  Tomlinson  has  given  us  in 
"  Our  Own  Land  Series."— Kennebec  Journal,  Augusta^  Me. 

•'There  are  some  parents  and  librarians  who  buy 
anything  new  that  Dr.  Tomlinson  writes,  they  are  so 
certain  of  its  moral  and  literary  worth  and  fidelity  to 
facts.  All  this  is  true  of  the  •  Our  Own  Land  Series.' " 
—  Work  With  Boyst  Fall  River,  Mass. 

"Appreciation  of  the  possessions  one  has  is  one  of 
the  strongest  elements  in  a  happy  life,  and  in  their 
rarious  travels  these  boys  are  certainly  learning  this 
lesson  with  regard  to  what  they  possess  in  the  beauties 
of  their  own  country." — Epioorth  Herald. 

"Mr.  Tomlinson  possesses  the  happy  faculty  of 
imparting  information  in  the  form  of  entertainment  to 
a  remarkable  degree."— Evening  Wisconsin. 

"  The  next  best  thing  to  visiting  these  places  yourself  is  to  hear  about  them 
from  Mr.  Tomlinson." — Providence  News. 


^E.T.TOMUNSON, 


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price  by  the  publishers 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD   CO.,   BOSTON 


War  for  the  Union  Series 

By  EVERETT  T.  TOMLINSON 
12mo     Cloth     Illustrated     $1.50  Each 

For  the  Stars  and  Stripes 

'T'HIS  story  is  based  on  true  happenings  and 
*  the  thread  of  it  is  the  escape  of  a  young 
Union  soldier  from  a  Southern  prison.  Graphic 
ally  told  incidents,  true  to  fact,  crowd  each  other. 
There  are  guerillas,  prisons,  campaigns,  negroes, 
friends  and  enemies,  loyal  men  and  others,  all 
patts  of  the  tale.  Above  all,  the  book  is  inter 
esting  as  well  as  intrinsically  valuable,  and  the 
keynote  to  the  series  will  be  loyalty  to  a  re 
united  country,  in  which  sentiment  those  of  all 
sections  can  heartily  join. 

"There  are  enough  exciting  events  to  suit  the 
average  live  boy,  and  there  is  the  advantage  of  a  back- 
ground  of  reality  and  a  lesson  in  history.  ' — Brooklyn 

"  The  author  has  a  felicitous  way  of  reaching  and  holding  the  boyish  mind 
•nd  heart  with  his  excellent  stories  with  historical  backgrounds." —  Chicago 
News. 

The  Young  Blockaders 

THIS  story  takes  its  readers  into  the  midst  of 
the  blockading  fleet.  Without  bitterness  it 
portrays  some  of  the  daring  deeds  of  each  side 
in  the  struggle.  Naturally,  its  incidents  and 
adventures  are  based  upon  the  daring  attempts 
of  the  blockader  and  the  blockade-runner  to 
outwit  each  other.  There  is  an  abundance  qf 
action  and  excitement  in  the  story,  which  is 
founded  upon  fact.  Its  readers  will  be  interested 
and  will  obtain  an  insight  into  an  important  and 
comparatively  unfamiliar  phase  of  the  **  Irrepres 
sible  Conflict." 

"  Dr  Tomlinson's  stories  have  an  earnest  purpose  that  lifts  their  engrossing 
interest  to  a  higher  plane  than  the  average  fiction  for  young  people." — Baptist 
Watchman. 

"  It  is  a  good  story,  and  the  author,  who  has  written  so  much  and  so  success- 
fully  for  boys,  is  at  his  best  in  this  volume." — Buffalo  News. 

For  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price  by  the  publishers 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  Boston 


NORMAN  CARVER  SERIES 

By  C.  B.  BURLEIGH 

Cloth     Large  I2mo     Illustrated     $1.50  each 


All  Among  the  Loggers 

NJORMAN  CARVER  is  a  bright,  vigorous  youth,  whose  father  feels 
*  ^  that  a  winter  of  practical  affairs  will  be  better  for  his  son  than  getting 
into  scrapes  at  school,  where,  though  clean  and  honest,  his  social  position 
and  active  nature  make  other  things  easier  than  hard,  old-fashioned  study. 
So  he  is  sent  to  the  deep  woods  of  Maine,  where  his  father  owns  lumber 
ing  interests,  and  set  to  work  as  company's  "  clerk."  An  eventful  winter 
follows  which  does  much  for  him. 

With  Pickpole  and  Peavey 


CARVER,  having  had  a  winter  as  a  clerk  in  a  lumber  camp, 
is  given  a  somewhat  similar  position  with  a  crew  of  river-drivers,  and 
with  him  is  his  faithful  friend,  Fred  Warner.  The  athletic,  well-educated 
city  boy  and  the  earnest  rural  youth,  "  a  born  woodsman  "  as  he  is  called, 
share  in  some  very  exciting  adventures,  and  they  bear  themselves  in  a  way 
that  is  a  pleasure  to  read  about. 


The  Young  Guide 

^ORMAN  accompanies  his  father  on  a  vacation 
trip  to  the  deep  woods  in  the  "  open"  season. 
In  addition  to  the  natural  excitement  of  hunting, 
further  adventures  are  supplied  by  a  band  of 
undesirable  citizens  who  steal  deer  left  hanging 
in  the  woods  and  sell  them  to  "yarding  crews." 
Norman  Carver,  and  friend,  Fred  Warner, 
who  wins  laurels  as  a  guide,  are  instrumental  in 
having  some  of  these  villains  brought  to  justice. 


For  tale  by  mil  booksellers  or  seat  postpaid  oa  receipt 
of  price  by  the  publishers 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  BOSTON 


Raymond  Benson  Series 

By  CLARENCE  B.  BURLE1QH 

Illustrated  by  L.  J.    Bridgman  Large   ismo,   Cloth 

$1.50  per  volume 

The  Camp  on  Letter  K 

T*HE  story  deals  with  two  active  boys  in  Aroostook  County  close  to  tha 
*  northeastern  boundary  of  our  country,  and  where  smuggling  across 
Ihe  Canadian  line  has  been  prevalent.  Equally  ready  in  athletics,  hunting, 
or  helping  their  families  on  the  rich  farms  of  that  section,  these  good 
chums  have  many  exciting  adventures,  the  most  important  of  which 
directly  concerns  the  leading  smugglers  of  the  district,  and  an  important 
public  service  is  rendered  by  the  boys. 

"There  is  an  atmosphere  about  the  whole  book  that  is  attractive  to  boys,  and  it 
will  be  read  by  them  with  enthusiastic  delight."  — Democrat  and  Chronicle^ 
Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Raymond  Benson  at  Krampton 

RAYMOND  BENSON  and  his  friend,  Ned  Grover,  go  to  Krampton 
Academy,  which  is  no  other  than  the  noted  school  at  New 
Hampton,  N.  H.,  where  Mr.  Burleigh  was  fitted  for  college.  We  have 
had  good  books  telling  of  the  larger  and  more  aristocratic  preparatory 
schools,  but  never  before  one  that  so  well  told  of  life  at  a  typical  country 
academy  of  the  sort  that  have  furnished  the  inspiration  for  so  many 
successful  men. 

44  It  is  interesting  from  start  to  finish,  and  while  rousing-  and  full  of  enthusiasm, 
is  wholesome  in  spirit,  and  teaches  lessons  of  purity  and  justice  and  manliness  in 
real  life."— Herald  &  Presbyter. 

The  Kenton  Pines 

«1£ENTON  COLLEGE"  is  Bowdoin 
^  College,  beautiful  in  its  location  and 
famous  in  its  history.  Raymond's  athletic 
abilities  insure  him  immediate  and  enduring 
prominence  as  a  student,  and  the  accounts  of 
athletic  contests  will  stir  the  blood  of  any 
one.  But  the  book  is  far  more  than  a  tale  of 
these  things;  it  is  a  wonderful  picture  of  life 
at  a  smaller  college,  with  all  its  fine  hard 
work,  "grinds,"  and  triumphs.  It  is  a  book 
that  rings  true  on  every  manly  question. 

44  This  book,  like  the  other  of  the  series,  is  of  a  very  high  character,  and  should 
be  an  inspiration  to  all  boys  contemplating  a  college  career."  —  Interior. 

For  Bale  at  ail  booksellers  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of 
price  by  the  publishers 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO..  BOSTON 


American  Heroes  and  Heroines 


By  PAULINE   CARRINGTON 
I2mo    Cloth  $1.25 


Botrvi"      Illustrated 


THIS  book,  which  will  tend  directly  toward 
the  making  of  patriotism  in  young  Americans, 
,  contains  some  twenty  brief,  clever  and  attractive 
sketches  of  famous  men  and  women  in  American 
history,  among  them  Father  Marquette,  Anne 
Hutchinson,  Israel  Putnam,  Molly  Pitcher,  Paul 
Jones,  Dolly  Madison,  Daniel  Boone,  etc.    Mrs. 
Bouv£  is  well  known  as  a  writer  both  of  fiction  and 
history,  and  her  work  in  this  case  is  admirable,  i 
"  The  style  of  the  book  for  simplicity  and  clearness 
of  expression  could  hardly  be   excelled."  —  Boston* 
Budget. 

The  Scarlet  Patch 

The  Story  of  a  Patriot  Boy  in  the  Mohawk  Valley 

By  MARY  E.  Q.  BRUSH  Illustrated  by  GEORGB  W.  PICKNELL  $1.25 
*"T^HE  Scarlet  Patch"  was  the  badge  of  a  Tory  organization,  and  a' 
JL  loyal  patriot  boy,  Donald  Bastien,  is  dismayed  at  learning  that  his 
uncle,  with  whom  he  is  a  "  bound  boy,"  is  secretly  connected  with  this 
treacherous  band.  Thrilling  scenes  follow  in  which  a  faithful  Indian 


figures  prominently,  and  there  is  a  vivid  presentation  of  the  sehool  and 
home  life  as  well  as  the  public  affairs  of  those  times. 

"  A  book  that  will  be  most  valuable  to  the  library  of  the  yowng  boy,"—  Provi- 
dence  News. 

Stories  of  Brave  Old  Times 

Some  Pen   Pictures  of  Scenes  Which 

Took  Place  Previous  to,  or  Connected 

With,  the  American   Revolution 

By  HELEN  M.  CLEVELAND    Profusely  illustra 
ted     Large  I2mo    Cloth  $1.25 

IT  is   a  book  for  every  library,   a  book   for 
adults,  and  a  book  for  the  young.     Per 
haps  no  other  book  yet  written  sets  the  great 
cost  of  freedom  so   clearly  before  the  young, 
•consequently  is  such  a  spur  to  patriotism. 

*•  It  can  unqualifiedly  be  commended  as  a  book  for 
youthful  readers;  its  great  wealth  of  illustrations 
adding  to  its  value."  —  Chicago  News. 


STORIES  op 

BRAVE  OLD 
TIMES 


For  sale  by  all  booksellers  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price 
by  the  publishers, 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  BOSTON 


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